Elemental, My Dear Mario
by Erin T. Aardvark
Summary: Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad travel to the land of Elementia, and help a young wizard-in-training gain back the shards of the Great Key, which keeps the elements in this land balanced
1. Elementia

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: This fanfic is based on a computer game called "Elementals: The Magic Key," by canon used is from "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show," which means I'm using Princess Toadstool instead of Princess Peach. Anyway, Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad belong to Nintendo. Most of the elemental characters belong to Playrix. All other characters belong to me._

* * *

 _Plumber's Log Number 10-22-09_

 _Our quest to save Princess Toadstool's kingdom had brought us to the land of Elementia, land of the elements of nature. We were about to find out what happens when the balance of these elements were tampered with._

* * *

Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad walked through the gates of Elementia. Everything seemed peaceful, until a gust of wind nearly blew the quartet right back through the gates.

"Whooaaa!" Mario shouted, grabbing onto the gates before he could blow away entirely. Luigi grabbed his legs, Toad grabbed Luigi's legs, and Princess Toadstool grabbed Toad's feet. Finally, the wind died down, and the group crashed to the ground.

"What was _that_ all about?" Toad asked.

"Beats me," Mario said.

Before anything else could be said, the ground began shaking. They grabbed onto the gate to steady themselves.

"First a hurricane, and now an earthquake?!" Luigi shouted. "What's going on here?!"

The earthquake stopped after awhile. Our heroes hesitated to move, afraid of what might be next. As they stood there, trying to figure out what to do, an old man walked up to them.

"The elements have all become unbalanced," he said. "That's what's going on here!"

"Unbalanced?" the Princess repeated. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I don't know for sure," the old man said, "but I think the Great Key of Elementia's been tampered with. That artifact binds and balances the elements of this world. If it's been tampered with, or destroyed, all heck breaks loose!"

"Is there any way we can fix this Great Key?" Mario asked.

"The only one who knows anything about the key is the great wizard, Eli Mentelle," the old man said. "Master of the Elements. He's the keeper of the Great Key, and ruler of Elementia. He lives in the Magic Tower, down the road apiece. If anybody would know what's going on, he would."

"Thanks, mister," Mario said. "Come on, everybody! Let's get to the Magic Tower!"

With that, Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad started down the road that would lead them to the Magic Tower. Once they arrived, they noticed that the place seemed eerily quiet. The front door was unlocked, so the foursome crept inside.

"Kinda creepy, isn't it?" Luigi asked, nervously. "Looks like nobody's home. Too bad. Let's go back."

"Hold it, Luigi," Mario said, grabbing his brother's arm. "We don't know for sure that nobody's home!"

"Mario's right," the Princess said. "Let's split up, and see if we can find this Eli Mentelle, or anyone else who might be living in this Magic Tower."

The others agreed, and the group each decided to go in a different direction to look for any signs of life. Mario went upstairs, and began checking various rooms. After walking down the entire hall without much luck, he finally saw some kind of light flashing from underneath the very last door at the end of the hall. He opened the door slowly, and looked inside the room. There he saw a brown-haired young man, wearing a blue robe, standing in the middle of the room, waving his arms about. He held up his hand, and a fireball shot out of it, heading straight for Mario.

"Mama mia!" Mario shouted, and ducked.

"Oops!" the young man shouted. He whipped a magic wand out of his pocket and waved it. The fireball dissolved in a puff of smoke.

"Wow, that was a hot one!" Mario shouted.

"Yeah, sorry about that," the young man said.

"No problem. Incidentally, my name's Mario."

"I'm Eli. Eli Mentelle."

"Eli Mentelle? Yahoo! This is great!"

Before Eli could say anything, Mario grabbed his hand, and practically yanked him out of the room. Eli was too dumbfounded to try and stop him.

"Hey, everybody!" Mario shouted, as he ran down the hall. "I found him! I found Eli Mentelle!"

"Wait, I . . . ." Eli started, but Princess Toadstool interrupted him.

"Wonderful, Mario!" she shouted. "Mr. Mentelle, we've been looking all over for you!"

"You have?" Eli asked. "Oh, wait a minute. I get it now, you see, I'm . . . ."

"You know you look a lot younger than I expected," Luigi said.

"Yeah, that's because . . . ." Eli started again.

"I guess that's the way it is with some wizards," Toad said. "They look like they're twenty something, when they're really six hundred years old. Anyway, you've got to help us! Everything's gone crazy with the elements!"

"Yeah, I know," Eli said. "But . . . ."

"We were told only the great Eli Mentelle, Master of the Elements, was the only person who could help," Mario said. "And you're him!"

"Would you please let me get a word in edgewise here?" Eli asked, sounding a bit frustrated. "You've got the wrong guy! I'm _not_ the great Eli Mentelle, Master of the Elements!"

"But Mario just said . . . ." Luigi began.

"Yes, my name _is_ Eli Mentelle," Eli said. "Eli Mentelle, _Junior_. You guys are looking for Eli Mentelle, _Senior_. My father is the one who's Master of the Elements, not me! I'm just a wizard in training."

"Oh," Mario said, sheepishly. "Uhh, sorry about that, Eli. Can you tell us where we can find your father?"

"Sure," Eli said. "Follow me."

Eli led the quartet down the hall and into another room. Inside, there were two stone statues, one of a man and the other of a woman.

"This is him," Eli said. "My father, and my mother, both elemental masters, but I'm afraid they're not in any condition to help you guys out."

"Wow," Toad said. "What happened to them?"

"My Aunt Adara happened to them," Eli explained. "Father's sister. She's the Mistress of Fire, but she wants to be Mistress of the Elements in order to take over the world. She attacked a couple of days ago, and destroyed the Great Key, causing the crystal shards separate from it. But Mother and Father interrupted her spell, and hid the shards. Aunt Adara was so mad, she cast a spell on my parents and turned them into stone. That's about all I know of the subject. Since the attack, I've been practicing my magic so I could find them."

"What do we do now?" Luigi asked.

"I don't think we have much of a choice," the Princess said. "We've got to put the Great Key back together to restore the balance of the elements. Will you help us, Eli?"

"Well . . . . I don't know," Eli said. "I haven't completed my magic training yet."

"I'm sure you'll be fine," Mario said. "Besides, we can't let your evil aunt find the shards first! The entire world will be doomed if she does!"

"And we don't know the layout of the land," Toad said. "We don't know where to start looking, or even how to find the shards!"

"Okay, then," Eli said. "Follow me, and we'll get started."

Eli led our heroes down the hall. Standing in front of a doorway was a huge figure, wielding a sword, and growling.

"What in the world is that?" Luigi asked.

"A golem," Eli said. "And he doesn't look to happy . . . ."

The golem growled fiercely, and charged. Everyone screamed, and ducked out of the way as fast as they could. The golem got up, looked around, and spotted Toad.

"Uh oh!" Toad shouted. "Time to make tracks!"

Before Toad could run off, the golem grabbed him by the back of his vest, and lifted him off the ground.

"Toad!" the Princess shouted.

"Hey you big bully!" Mario shouted. "Pick on someone your own size!"

The golem growled, and hurled his sword at Mario, missing him by a fraction of an inch, but it was close enough to take off a few mustache hairs.

"Wow, talk about a close shave!" Luigi shouted.

"Eli!" Toad shouted. "You're the one with the magic! Do something!"

"Well, I'll give it a shot," Eli said. "But I already told you, I'm not done with my training."

Eli rolled up his sleeves, put his hands together, and concentrated. A blue ball of magic generated in his hands, and he threw it at the golem. The ball turned into water, and hit the golem directly in the chest. It was knocked off it's feet, and Toad went flying through the air, but the Princess caught him before he could hit the ground.

"Nice catch, your highness," he said.

"Hey, check out tall, dark, and ugly over there," Luigi said.

The others looked and saw that the golem was engulfed in water. Eli waved his hand, and the golem exploded into nothingness.

"Wow!" Luigi shouted.

"Wow is right," Eli said. "I can't believe I actually did it!"

"Nice going, Eli!" Mario shouted. "Now we'd better get moving!"


	2. The Library

Eli led the heroes into his parents' bedroom, and immediately began searching every inch of it. He managed to dig out a key from the bookshelf, but he continued looking around the room.

"What are you looking for?" Mario asked.

"There's a secret cache in here," Eli said. "This key opens it. But I'm not quite sure where it is. Help me look for it."

The others started looking around. Toad found a carving at the foot of the bed, and the minute he touched it, a door opened, revealing a keyhole.

"Hey, Eli!" he called out. "I think I found it!"

"Great work, Toad," Eli said. He stuck the key into the keyhole and turned it. Inside the cache was a glowing blue crystal.

"Is that one of the key shards?" Mario asked.

"No," Eli said. "It's a key to the shield downstairs. Something tells me it'll help us get to the bottom of this."

The group was about to leave the room when the Princess stopped suddenly. She was looking at a cage that held a little, furry brown creature. It appeared to be whimpering.

"Oh, you poor little thing," she said. "You don't like it in there, do you? Adara must have locked you up. Well, I'll let you out."

The Princess found the key to the cage and unlocked it. Eli heard the lock click, and turned around, just as the Princess opened the cage door.

"Princess Toadstool! Don't!" he shouted.

"Why not?" the Princess asked. She got the answer to that question when the furry creature growled and lunged at her, baring a sharp set of teeth, and claws. It no longer looked cute. Now it looked ferocious.

"That's why not!" Eli shouted, jumping in front of the Princess.

The Princess let out a terrified shriek. Eli waved his hands, and a large vine appeared out of nowhere. Once he had it in his hand, he began cracking it like a whip.

"Down, Sathy!" he shouted. "Down, boy! Back! Back!"

The creature began whimpering, and retreated to his cage. Eli immediately shut the door, and locked it, putting the key back into the drawer where the Princess found it.

"Bad boy, Sathy!" Eli scolded. "Very bad boy! What would Mother think of that display?"

Sathy whimpered like a dog with it's tail between it's legs, and curled into the corner of his cage.

"What was that thing, anyway?" Mario asked.

"Sathy," Eli said. "One of Mother's pets. He doesn't like strangers, which is why he lunged at the Princess. He's a nice little guy, but he can be extremely vicious."

"So I've noticed," the Princess said. "Thanks for the intervention, Eli."

"Don't mention it," Eli said. "Come on, we've got more work to do."

"Where do we go from here?" Mario asked.

"The library," Eli said.

Eli led the group downstairs to the main hall. A golem stood at a door, and appeared to be guarding it.

"Guard, open the door to the library," he said. The golem did not respond. Eli was not amused.

"Sheesh, what is _with_ these golems?" he asked.

"Maybe it has to do with your aunt and the broken key," Mario suggested.

"Yeah, I see the problem here," Eli said. "He's missing his energizing crystals. Without them, he's inactive."

"How do we reactivate him?" Luigi asked.

"How else?" Eli said, picking up a blue rock from the floor. "Find the energy crystals. They look like this."

"Well, let's start looking, everybody," Mario said.

Immediately, the group began looking and collecting blue crystals that were laying around the hallway. Once they found all nine, Eli inserted them into the golem, but nothing happened.

"Did we do something wrong?" Toad asked.

"No," Eli said, taking the crystal the group found in the bedroom. "Remember the shield I mentioned? This should activate the golem."

Eli took the crystal, and inserted it into the shield on the wall. A panel opened revealing a strange, multicolored pattern, but it was mixed up.

"Whoa," he said. "Uhhh . . . . sorry, guys. I think we're stuck. I'm not quite sure what to do here."

"I think I do," Mario said. "We've got to put this shield back together. All we have to do is match the colors together."

Mario began rotating the disks on the shield until they locked into their proper places. Once i was fixed, the colored pattern lit up, and the energizing crystals in the golem activated.

"Okay, guard, let's try this again," Eli said. "Open the library!"

"I obey," the guard said in a robotic voice.

The library door opened immediately, and the group ran inside. Once there, Eli ran to a book sitting on a pedestal, and began looking through it. Toad was more interested in a strange device sitting by the window.

"I wonder how this thing works?" he asked. He put his hand on it, and suddenly there was a huge explosion. Pieces of red glass flew everywhere, and several disks came shooting out of it.

"Toad, what did you just do?!" Luigi shouted.

"Haven't you ever heard the expression look with your eyes, not with your hands?" Mario scolded.

"I'm sorry," Toad said, sheepishly. "I didn't mean to break it. Will you be able to fix it, Eli?"

"I don't know," Eli said. "I don't even know what that thing is! Maybe it's in the book."

Eli began to turn the pages in the book, with Princess Toadstool helping him.

"Here's a drawing that looks like it," she said. "According to this, that machine is called a Lidar. It's used to open portals to every separate land in Elementia. A ray of magical energy is refracted from inside of it and reflected by the mirrors that it reaches the proper color and intensity. To set up the Lidar, an Aura Scanner must be used to scan the aura of an object, and then it encodes it as a sequence of lights and colors, which needs to be entered on the Lidar's control panel."

"Sounds a little too complex for me," Luigi said. "How are we going to get this thing back together?"

"Let's clean up this mess first," Eli said. "Then we'll figure out how to put the Lidar back together."

"And don't touch anything else until we do, Toad," Mario said, and he and the others began to gather up the mirrors.

Once the group put the mirrors into the Lidar, nothing happened.

"Think we put them in wrong?" Mario asked.

"We'll never get this thing working," Toad sighed, leaning against the window behind the Lidar. Unfortunately, the window wasn't locked, and the little mushroom accidentally pushed it open when he leaned on it.

"Whoa!" he shouted, regaining his balance before he could fall out.

Mario was about to scold Toad for being careless again, when he suddenly noticed energy flowing through the Lidar's pipes, and a light shining on a sphere next to the large book the Princess and Eli were looking through.

"Nice going, Toad!" he shouted. "You figured out how it worked!"

"Tweren't nothing," Toad said.

"I wonder . . . ." the Princess said. She began to inspect the sphere, and found it opened. Inside was a red crystal, with a strange symbol etched in it.

"Hey, Princess!" Eli shouted, excitedly. "You found the Fire Shard!"

"The what?" the Princess asked, confused.

"One of the shards of the Great Key!" Eli shouted.

"Great!" Mario shouted. "So what do we do now?"

"Use this Lidar to find the other shards," Eli said.

Taking the Fire Shard from the Princess, Eli stuck it into the Aura Scanner. After a few moments, something appeared on the screen. It looked like a huge tree.

"What is that?" Toad asked.

"The Great Forest," Eli said. "That must be where Father hid one of the shards."

"How do we open up the portal to get there?" Mario asked.

"I've seen Mother in here a lot," Eli said. "She's almost always near that bookshelf next to the Lidar. Maybe there's something there."

Toad ran to the bookshelf, and began searching. He found a cabinet on the bottom of the shelf, and opened the doors, revealing a set of multicolored buttons. The buttons began lighting up, and then stopped.

"I got it," Luigi said. "We have to repeat the color pattern."

Luigi walked over to the control panel, and pushed the buttons in the same order the Aura Scanner gave them. The Lidar lit up, and a green beam was focusing on the Lidar's central mirror.

"According to the book," the Princess said, "the center ray needs to go through all the focusing mirrors and return to the center. The color of the center of the ray should match the color of the first ray."

"Meaning the ray from the green mirror needs to be toward the central mirror," Eli said. "This may be difficult, but I think we'll be able to figure it out."

It took a little bit of fiddling, but Eli managed to turn the focusing mirrors to their correct positions. A green beam appeared from the top of a tower outside.

"Looks like the portal's open," Toad said. "Let's hit it, dudes!"

Our heroes ran out of the house, and to the Magic Tower. Unfortunately, when they reached it, they found the tower wasn't working either.

"Great," Luigi said, sarcastically. "Now how are we supposed to get to the Great Forest?"

"We could walk," Mario suggested.

"Too far," Eli said. "This is why we use the portals."

Suddenly, a strange light appeared, and morphed into a ghostly figure wearing a brown cape, and carrying a deck of cards.

"The power of this place slumbers," he said. "You cannot access it. If only . . . ."

"If only what?" the Princess asked.

"If only the statues were crowned with stones," the figure continued, "and stone discs were set in their proper places."

"What does _that_ mean?" Mario asked.

"I've said enough," the figure said. "Now you must act."

And with that, the figure disappeared, as mysteriously as it came.

"Oooh, scary!" Toad shouted.

"What did that thing mean?" Luigi asked. "It doesn't make sense!"

"I think I know what he's talking about," Eli said, looking around. "See these statues in front of the Magic Tower? They're supposed to have stones on top of them. And these indentations in the tower . . . ."

"Yeah, I see what you mean," Mario said, picking up a small, stone disc. "The carving on this disc I found matches the carving in the tower. Come on, everybody, let's get started! Princess, you and Toad look for the discs. Luigi and Eli, you help me with the stones!"

The group nodded, and split up. Shortly thereafter, Mario, Luigi, and Eli had the statues crowned, and the Princess and Toad had gathered up all the discs. Toad gave his to Eli, and he and the Princess placed them in the tower (they were the only two tall enough to do it). Once everything was in place, the green beam from the top of the tower focused on the stone of one of the statues, causing it to have a green glow. A strange green hole than opened up in the middle of the tower.

"Okay, the portal is open," Eli said. "Follow me!"

"Do we have to?" Luigi asked, nervously.

"Yes," Mario said, grabbing his brother's arm, and practically dragging him into the portal.


	3. The Great Forest

Within seconds, our heroes arrived in the Great Forest. Eli started to lead the way to the Forest Master, but the path was blocked by a tangle of vines. No matter how he, Mario, Luigi, and Toad tried, they couldn't untangle them.

"Okay, this is weird," Eli said. "This isn't usually blocked like this!"

"Hey, you guys smell something?" Mario asked, suddenly, sniffing the air.

"Smells like something burning," Toad said, looking around for the source. "And it's coming from over there!"

The group turned to look in the direction Toad was pointing. There was a burning tree stump, and a baby nature elemental standing near it, with badly burned roots. Princess Toadstool was immediately sympathetic towards it.

"Oh, the poor little thing," she said.

"Stand back, Princess!" Mario shouted. "You remember what happened back at the tower!"

"Don't worry, Mario," Eli said. "Nature elementals are the most gentle of the elementals. And this one's just a baby. This little guy won't hurt you."

"We have to help him," the Princess said. "Look at him, he's hurt!"

Eli then snapped his fingers, and a book appeared in his hands. He turned a couple of pages, and then nodded.

"Here's a healing spell," he said. "I'm going to need nine dewdrops, sixteen golden leaves, and twelve magic flowers. Here's what they look like."

Eli showed the pictures of the golden leaves and magic flowers to the others, and immediately, Mario, Luigi, and Toad got to work collecting them, while Eli collected the dewdrops and set up a cauldron. The Princess tried to comfort the forest baby. Once everything had been gathered, our heroes poured the ingredients in. Eli stirred them around with his wand, until the concoction came to a rapid boil.

"That ought to do it," he said. "Okay, Princess. We're ready for the forest baby. Just bring him over here and put his burned root into the cauldron."

Princess Toadstool nodded, and picked up the forest baby. It shook a little in her hold.

"There, there," she said, stroking it. "It's all right, little one. We're here to help you."

The forest baby calmed down, and began making trilling noises, as if he were telling the Princess it trusted her. Gently, the Princess put the baby's damaged roots into the cauldron. When she took them out, they were completely healed. The forest baby squeaked, and jumped up and down happily. Then it rubbed against the Princess, making trilling noises again.

"You're welcome," the Princess said, petting the forest baby affectionately.

"Now what do we do?" Luigi asked.

"We find the Forest Master," Eli said. "And we'd better take the forest baby with us, just in case. I get the feeling there's been fire elementals here. And those fire elementals work for my Aunt Adara. It's not safe for him here."

"But there's only one path, and it's blocked," Luigi said.

"I can fix that," Eli said, taking his magic wand out.

Eli waved the wand three times, and the vines untangled themselves, opening the path. But before our heroes could go through, thirteen strange lights began to approach them.

"What are those lights?" the Princess asked.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Eli said nervously. "I hate to tell you guys this, but those aren't lights."

When the lights got closer, the group realized what they were, and Eli was right. They weren't lights. They were large, sentient one-eyed flames, with evil looking jack-o-lantern type smiles.

"Holy macaroni!" Luigi shouted. "What _are_ they?!"

"Fire elementals," Eli said. "Courtesy of Aunt Adara, I'm sure!"

"And look what's following them!" Toad shouted.

Behind the thirteen balls of fire was a larger ball of fire, this one with arms carrying swords, and wearing armor. The forest baby began to whimper, and tried to hide in the Princess's arms.

"A Fire Knight," Eli said. "Now I _know_ Aunt Adara's been here!"

"Ha-sh-sh-sh!" the Fire Knight laughed. "Where are you going? What do you want? Give my woodshie back or you'll be shorry!"

"Your woodshie?" Mario asked. "What do you mean _your_ woodshie?"

"I think he means the forest baby," Toad said.

"Well you can't have it!" the Princess shouted. "It's not yours! It belongs to the Great Forest!"

"Ha-sh-sh-sh!" the Fire Knight laughed again. "You're not sh-shaking? You're not shcared? Sh-shoon you will pay! You never forget me!"

The Fire Knight put down one of his swords, and threw a gigantic fireball at our heroes. Eli held up his hand, and a splash of water flew out, dousing the flame.

"Stay back, guys!" he shouted. "I'll take care of this hot head!"

The Mario Bros., Toad, and Princess Toadstool immediately ducked behind some trees, and watched as Eli and the Fire Knight began throwing water and fireballs back and forth at each other. Eli concentrated as hard as he could, after dousing each of the Fire Knight's thirteen fireballs, and send a gigantic stream of water at the knight, hitting him squarely in the chest, and doused him for good.

"Hey, that was hot stuff!" Mario shouted, as he and the others emerged.

"Better take his armor along with us," Toad said, picking up the Fire Knight's helmet. "Just in case. Besides, I've always wanted some cool armor!"

"I'd hardly describe a Fire Knight's armor as 'cool,' Toad," the Princess said.

The others laughed, gathered up the armor, as well as the forest baby, and walked down the path to visit with the Forest Master. At the end of the path was a large tree. It appeared to have a face carved in it, and it was wearing a pair of glasses.

"Hello, Forest Master," Eli said.

"Ahhh, greetings, young Eli Mentelle," the tree said. Once it did, Mario, Luigi, the Princess, and Toad let out startled yelps, and backed away for a moment.

"It's okay, you guys," Eli said. "This is the Forest Master. He won't hurt you. Forest Master, these are my friends. Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Toadstool."

"Uhh, how do you do, Mr. Forest Master, sir," Mario said, a little nervously. The Forest Master chuckled.

"You don't need to be afraid of me," he said. "Believe me, my bark is worse than my bite."

The Forest Master began to laugh at his joke, while the others groaned, and rolled their eyes.

"Oh, but why am I laughing at a time like this?" the Forest Master asked. "Eli, I'm glad you're here. My little son is lost. Please help me find my forest baby!"

"Forest baby?" the Princess repeated. Then she stepped forward and held out the forest baby she and the others had found earlier. "Is this your son, Master?"

The forest baby squeaked, and began to jump up and down happily. It jumped out of the Princess's arms, and ran up to the great tree. It rubbed it's face against the trunk, and began making trilling noises.

"Yes, indeed!" the Forest Master shouted. "Thank you so much, Princess! Please tell me how I may reward you and your friends!"

"We're looking for shards of the Great Key," Eli said. "Aunt Adara is trying to steal them, and Father has hidden them somewhere. We found the Fire Shard and put it on an Aura Scanner, and it told us we'd be able to find the Nature Shard here in the Great Forest."

"Ah yes," the Forest Master said. "I was wondering why the key shard had come here. Unfortunately, I am unable to give it to you. I'm having a bit of trouble. A Fire Knight is devouring my wood . . . ."

"Oh, that's no problem," Mario said. "Eli here's taken care of the Fire Knight."

"Here's his armor to prove it," Toad said, putting the Fire Knight's helmet on the ground in front of the great tree.

"Ah, excellent," the Forest Master said. "But there's a great worm inside of me gnawing at my roots, and I fear he won't leave."

"What can we do to help you?" Mario asked.

"Gather the spores of the Mushrooms of Forgetfulness," the Forest Master said. "They're the ones that are glowing. I'll tell you what to do when you've gathered twelve of them. And lay the rest of the Fire Knight's armor here."

"Well, let's get to work, gang!" Mario shouted.

Immediately, the Mario Bros, Toad, and the Princess ran toward the glowing spores and gathered up the twelve they needed, while Eli put the Fire Knight's armor at the foot of the Forest Master. Once everything was gathered, the Forest Master reached out his hand, and waved it.

"What are you doing?" Luigi asked.

"I am creating an illusion using the spores and the armor to lure out the worm," the Forest Master said. "Stand back."

The group stood back, and the spores and the armor began swirling together, taking on the shape of the Fire Knight. The illusion raised one of it's swords, and sent a bright light into the depths of the Forest Master's roots. The group heard gnawing, and out came the biggest, ugliest worm they had ever seen in their lives. The Princess let out a shriek, and began backing away from it.

"Mama mia!" Mario shouted.

"Holy ravioli!" Luigi shouted. "Let's get outta here!"

"I'm with you!" Toad shouted. "Gangway!"

Eli stood his ground, and began waving his arms and his hands. A green ball of light came flying out of his right hand, turning into a mess of vines in midflight. The vines wrapped themselves around the worm, and began squeezing. Then the vines started to glow. The worm struggled, but was unable to untangle itself. Eli waved his hand, and the vines released the worm, and it crawled off, never to be seen again.

"Thank you, Eli," the Forest Master said. "Now would you do one more thing for me?"

"Sure," Eli said. "What's that?"

"My roots have been badly damaged by that vile creature," the Forest Master said. "Can you repair them?"

The group walked toward the Forest Master's roots and looked at the damage. They were twisted, turned, and broken in several places.

"Hmmm," Eli said. "I'm not sure if I can, Master."

"Hey, Mario," Luigi said. "You know what this looks like? The pipes behind Mrs. Brown's wall back in Brooklyn. All twisted, and turned, and in a mess, 'cause her husband tried to do the plumbing himself."

"Hey, you're right, Luigi!" Mario shouted. "Leave it to us, Master! We'll have you back on your roots in no time at all!"

Immediately, Mario and Luigi got to work. They took out their wrenches, and began turning the great tree's roots into their proper locations. They used some sap from the overhanging vines to seal the cracks. Then Eli waved his magic wand to restore the roots to their original form. Once they were finished, the Forest Master heaved a great sigh of relief.

"Oh, that feels _much_ better," he said. "Thank you, my friends."

"You're welcome, Master," Mario said. "Can we have the Nature Shard now?"

"Most certainly," the Forest Master said. He reached into his leaves, and pulled a green crystal out, handing it to Eli. Then he waved his hand, and opened the portal back to the Magic Tower.

"Thanks, Forest dude!" Toad shouted, as he and the others jumped through the portal.


	4. The Stone Caverns

Once the group was back at the tower, they immediately ran to the library. Eli placed the Nature Shard into the Aura Scanner. A picture of a cave appeared, with a huge earth elemental in front of it.

"The Stone Caverns," Eli said. "The Lady of the Lake lives there. Father must have sent the Earth Shard to her."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Mario asked. "Let's set the Lidar, and go!"

Eli nodded, repeated the light pattern on the bookshelf to activate the Lidar, and got to work turning the mirrors, until a yellow ray reflected off the tower. Immediately, the group ran back outside to open the portal to the Stone Caverns. Once they reached the Magic Tower, the ghostly apparition they encountered before appeared again.

"The power of this place has awakened," he said. "But your path remains closed. If only . . . ."

"Here we go again," Toad groaned, rolling his eyes.

"If only what?" Mario asked.

"Here are the children of the elements," the apparition said, spreading a group of cards out on a rock in front of our heroes. "Five of each. Gather the images of each class, from one to five, and I shall open the portal."

"Kind of like Solitaire," Mario said. "No sweat! I can do this easily!"

It took a little bit of shuffling, since Mario couldn't place a card with a higher number on top of a card with a lower number (unless it was dealt that way by the apparition), but he finally solved the puzzle.

"Quick thinking, steady hand," the apparition said. "Your skills are outstanding."

With that, the apparition disappeared, and opened the portal to the Stone Caverns. When they arrived, they found themselves standing in front of a large cave, blocked by a large, sleeping earth elemental.

"Great," Toad groaned. "How are we supposed to get past ol' Stone Face here?"

"We'll have to wake him up," Mario said. "Or would you advise against that, Eli?"

"Unfortunately, we don't have a choice," Eli said. "If we don't wake him up, we can't see the Lady of the Lake."

Mario walked up to the earth elemental and tapped him on the arm to get his attention.

"Excuse me, paisano," he said. When he didn't get a response, he began tapping harder. "Hey, you! Hey, sleeping beauty! Wake up!"

"I've heard of heavy sleepers," Luigi said, "but this is ridiculous!"

"I'm gonna try one more time," Mario said. He took a deep breath, and screamed at the top of his lungs. "WAAAAAAAAKE UUUUUUUUP!"

The earth elemental did not respond. All he did was snore, and loudly. As a matter of fact, his snoring was so loud, several stones shook loose from his body and fell to the ground.

"This guy's going to pieces here!" Mario shouted.

"I've got an idea," the Princess said. "Maybe if we take the loose stones and put them back into the elemental, he'll wake up."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Mario said, picking up some loose stones on the ground. "Let's do it!"

The group picked up as many loose stones as they could. Once they found them all, they began placing them into the earth elemental's body, as carefully as they could. The minute Toad put the last stone in place, the elemental stirred, and woke up. He looked down at Toad, and glared at him.

"Uhhh, hi, Stoney," Toad said, nervously.

The earth elemental growled, grabbed Toad by his vest, and lifted him into the air, ready to crush him.

"Hey! What's the big idea?!" Toad shouted. "We just put you back together!"

"Eli, do something, quick!" Mario shouted. "Or else Toad's gonna be a mashed mushroom!"

"Mashed mushroom," Eli repeated. "Yuck! One of my least favorite dishes."

Eli waved his hands, and thrust his right hand forward, creating a vine. He used it to lasso Toad, and pull him back, out of the earth elemental's grip. Then he waved his hand again, and a blast of water came shooting out of his hand, pushing the earth elemental backwards. He kept increasing water pressure, until the stones he and the others had just put back into him loosened, and began falling out. The earth elemental growled, and ran off. He was too tired to deal with this.

"That's gratitude for ya," Toad said, sourly. "See if I do a favor for a rock ever again!"

"Boy, that guy was aggressive!" Mario said.

"He was nothing compared to you first thing in the morning, Mario," Luigi teased. Mario gave him a dirty look.

With the entrance of the cave cleared, our heroes walked inside. There they saw a huge lake.

"So where do we find this Lady of the Lake?" Toad asked.

"My guess is at the bottom of the lake," Eli said.

"No problem," Mario said. "I'll just dive on in, and . . . ."

"Wait a minute," Eli said, grabbing the back of Mario's overalls before he could plunge in. "You can't just drop in on her like that!"

"Yes, that's very rude!" the Princess shouted.

"Then how do you suggest we get her up to the surface?" Mario asked.

"We ring," Eli said, pointing to a nearby gong.

"I'll do it," Toad said. He took the hammer hanging on a hook next to the gong, swung, and hit it as hard as he could.

 _BOOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGGG!_

Of course, thanks to the force of Toad's swing, not only did the gong vibrate, but so did he!

"Whoa-oa-oa-oa-oa!" he shouted.

"Are you all right, Toad?" the Princess asked.

"N-n-n-ev-ev-ev-ever b-b-b-bet-t-t-t-ter!" Toad shouted.

While Toad finished vibrating, a large throne rose from the bottom of the lake. Sitting on it was what looked like a large water elemental, with two smaller water elementals wielding spears standing on either side of her throne. Eli approached, and kneeled. The others followed suit.

"Greetings, Lady of the Lake," Eli said. "We're sorry to bother you, but we need your help. My aunt, Adara the Fire Mistress, tried to steal the Great Key of Elementia, and my father broke it apart to hide the shards from her. My friends and I are trying to find them before she does."

"I see," the Lady of the Lake said. "I have received the Earth Shard, and I will give it to you if you will do something for me first. One of Adara's minions, the Hunter of Fire, stole an artifact from me, the clepsydra. I am unable to leave the cave without it."

"That shouldn't be a problem," the Princess said. "But how will we know the clepsydra when we see it?"

"You will know, my dear," the Lady of the Lake said. "Take my Box of Summoning, and fill it with the blue, red, and green crystals you see on the walls of the cave. But make sure you don't fill the box until you're outside."

"Why's that?" Toad asked.

"I just cleaned up in here," the Lady of the Lake said. "I don't want everything to get broken and messed up again after you fight with that giant brute!"

"Did she say giant?" Luigi asked.

"Right away, my lady," Eli said, ignoring Luigi. "Come on, let's gather the crystals first."

The group nodded, and began collecting the necessary crystals. Once they had all they needed, they went outside the cave, put the Box of Summoning on the ground, and placed the crystals inside of it. They all started to glow, and swirl around, until a bubble appeared. Slowly, a large being that seemed to be made of fire appeared in the bubble. He growled, and began pushing against the bubble, cracking it, until he finally burst out, and pulled up to his full height.

"Flaming fettuccine!" Luigi shouted, nervously. "She _did_ say giant!"

"You know what they say, Luigi," Mario said, shrugging. "The bigger they are, the harder they fall!"

"That's easy for you to say!" Eli shouted, waving his arms in order to summon up his water powers. "You're not the one fighting this guy!"

Eli shot his right hand forward, and a blast of water flowed from it with the force of a tidal wave. The Hunter of Fire growled, and began shooting fireballs. Eli dodged, and fired water at the fireballs, dousing them before they could even hit him. After a long struggle, Eli finally managed to water the Hunter down to size, and used a final blast to destroy him. Once he went up in a puff of smoke, a strange hourglass of some kind was left in the Hunter's place.

"That must be the clepsydra," the Princess said.

"Most likely," Eli said. "To tell you guys the truth, I wouldn't know the clepsydra if I fell over it, either."

"Well, let's go," Mario said, picking up the artifact. "The sooner we return this to the Lady of the Lake, the sooner we get the Earth Shard!"

The group walked back inside the cave, and kneeled before the Lady of the Lake.

"Oh great Lady of the Lake!" Mario shouted. "I present to you the clepsydra! I think."

"You've done very well," the Lady of the Lake said. She waved her hand, and an orange crystal floated over to Eli.

"There is the Earth Shard," she said. "I'll also open the portal to the Magic Tower so you may return."

"Thank you, my lady," Eli said. "We appreciate it!"

Mario, Luigi, Toad, and the Princess also bade farewell to the Lady of the Lake, and went through the portal, eager to see where the Earth Shard would lead them on their quest.


	5. The Water House

Once our heroes returned to the Magic Tower, Eli put the Earth Shard into the Aura Scanner. A picture of what looked like a house made of ice appeared.

"The Water House," he said. "That must be our next stop."

"Time to set the Lidar again," Mario said.

Eli nodded, and walked over to the Lidar in order to set the machine's coordinates. Once he did, a blue ray appeared. Our heroes then ran outside to the tower to open the portal. But just their luck, the ghostly apparition appeared in front of them once more.

"Oh no, not you again!" Mario groaned.

"The power of this place now obeys you," the apparition said. "But your path is blocked. If only . . . ."

"Listen, fella," Toad said. "We're kind of in a hurry here, so tell us what you want and let's get it over with!"

The apparition said nothing, and laid the cards out in front of our heroes. Mario once again got to work sorting them in their correct order. The apparition did not look pleased.

"Impossible!" he shouted. "No one has ever solved this puzzle!"

"Mario just did," Toad said, somewhat smugly.

"Go now!" the apparition shouted. "Before I come up with a new task for you!"

And with that, the apparition disappeared. Once it was gone, the portal to the Water House opened, and our heroes went through.

"I wonder if that guy's working for your aunt," Mario said to Eli.

"Beats me," Eli said, shrugging. "Let's just be glad all he wants from us so far is a card game!"

Our heroes stepped through the portal, and landed in what looked like a land of ice. Everything was frozen solid. The group walked along until they came to a river bank, and the only way to go forward was to cross the river.

"Something's not right here," Eli said. "The river's supposed to be flowing. And if we don't get the river flowing, we won't be able to get to the Water House."

"Let's cross and see what's upstream," Mario said.

"Yeah, the river's probably just dammed, that's all," Toad said, shrugging.

"Watch your language!" Luigi scolded.

The others ignored Luigi's remark. Mario jumped into the dry river, and landed flat on his stomach.

"Ooof!" he shouted. "That was a long way down!"

"Yeah, normally this is a pretty deep river," Eli said, waving his hand to create a vine. He threw the other end to Mario and helped pull him out.

"It's just as steep on the other side, too," he said. "I think my magic wand is called for in this case."

Eli took his magic wand out, and waved it. The ground rose up between the two riverbanks, creating a bridge. Eli was also sure to make the bridge sections close enough together so the group could cross safely, but far enough apart so they wouldn't block the river once he and the others figured out how to get it flowing again. Once the group crossed to the other side, however, they were met with a nasty surprise.

"Oh no!" the Princess shouted. "Another Fire Knight!"

"There's never a fire flower around when ya need one," Mario said, rolling his eyes.

"Ha-sh-sh-sh!" the Fire Knight shouted, waving his sword menacingly. "I shnagged the nashty magician and hish friendsh! Now revenshe ish mine!"

"R-r-revenge for wh-wh-what?" Luigi asked, nervously.

"My brother'sh death!" the Fire Knight shouted. "You shlaughtered him in the foresht! Now prepare to meet your fatesh!"

The Fire Knight lunged, and our heroes dove out of the way, in different directions. Immediately, Eli began firing balls of fire out of his hand, keeping the Fire Knight's squad of fireballs at bay for the time being.

"I've always said you had to fight fire with fire," Mario said.

"Yeah," Eli said, waving his arms. "But water usually works better. Take this!"

A giant blast of water flew from the palm of Eli's hand, extinguishing the Fire Knight completely. And once the knight was defeated, his army disappeared in puffs of smoke as well. The only thing left was the Fire Knight's armor.

"You're really hot stuff, Eli!" Toad shouted. "Get it? Hot stuff? Eee-hee-hee-hee!"

"Ooooohhhhhh!" the others groaned.

"Looks like you were right about one thing, Toad," Mario said, walking over to a pile of stones in the middle of the river. "Someone _did_ dam up the river. And I don't think it was beavers, either!"

"How are we gonna unblock it?" Luigi asked.

"Like this!" Mario walked over to the dam, and lifted one of the rocks. He didn't get more than two steps forward before he lost his grip on the rock, and landed flat on his face.

 _WHUMP_!

"Ooof!" he shouted.

"Mario, are you all right?" the Princess asked.

"Anybody get the license number of that pizza truck?" he asked, dazedly.

"Those are definitely too heavy for us to move," the Princess said. "What do we do now?"

"Ha, ha, ha, ha!" a voice laughed. "I knew you wouldn't be able to lift those rocks! You're all too puny!"

"Who said that?" Mario asked.

"I did, fatso!" the voice shouted. The group looked around and saw a figure of some kind carved in a rock talking to them.

"Who are you?" Toad asked.

"He's the River Keeper," Eli said.

"Now I've seen just about everything," Luigi said. "You gonna help us, or are you gonna sit there and insult us all day?"

"Why should I help you?" the River Keeper asked.

"If we don't unblock the river, won't be able to get to the Water House," Eli explained. "And if we don't get to the Water House, we won't be able to get the Water Shard to the Great Key, and my evil aunt, Adara the Fire Mistress, could get her hands on it. And if Aunt Adara gets the shard . . . . ."

"Stop right there," the River Keeper said. "You had me at Adara the Fire Mistress. I don't want the likes of _her_ taking over the world, that's for sure! Okay, this is what you do. You draw the magic seal in front of me, gather a pile of rocks in the center of the seal, and then release the snow flies."

"What's a snow fly?" Toad asked.

"I know what they are," Eli said. "I'll take care of them and the magic seal. The rest of you gather the rocks."

The River Keeper produced a jar from out of nowhere, and threw it to Eli, and he immediately got to work capturing snow flies, while the others gathered up small stones. Once everything was gathered, Mario and Luigi grabbed a couple of pine branches and swept away some of the snow in front of the rock carving. Then Eli took his magic wand, and drew something in the ground. Toad and the Princess piled the rocks in the center of Eli's drawing, and arranged them to look like the dam blocking the river. Last, but not least, Eli opened the jar and released the snow flies. The snow flies flew to the small pile of rocks, lifting them away, one by one. As they did, the stones from the dam were being lifted by an unknown force, one by one. Once the last rock was gone, the river began flowing again.

"All right!" Mario shouted. "Now, onward to the Water House!"

"You said we needed the river to be flowing to get there," Toad said. "So how do we get there?"

"By boat," Eli said. "How else?"

"There's a boat over here," the Princess called out, pointing across the river. "Unfortunately, it's kind of falling apart."

"There's no way that thing is safe for use!" Luigi shouted.

"There's some planks laying around," Mario said. "We can use them, and Eli's magic wand, to make this ship shipshape in no time!"

"You know, Mario," Luigi said. "Once, just _once_ I wish you wouldn't come up with such good ideas."

The group went over to the other side of the riverbank, and began gathering up the planks. While searching, Toad managed to dig up some nails. As they were searching, they found they needed to go across the river to get some more. When they got there, they saw an Earth Knight poking his sword at the fallen armor of the Fire Knight.

"What in the world?" Mario asked. That got the Earth Knight's attention. He looked up and glared at our heroes.

"How dare you, you villains!" he shouted. "You've attacked an innocent person! I'll punish you for your trickery, in the name of Mother Earth!"

"Hey, wait a second there, paisano!" Mario shouted. "We . . . . we can explain everything!"

"Scramble!" Toad shouted, and darted away as fast as he could. The others followed suit.

Eli, however, stood his ground. He waved his arms, and a stone sword appeared in his hand.

"En garde, Sir Stone!" he shouted.

"Ah, you wish to battle this way, do you?" the Earth Knight asked. "Very well, sir. Touche!"

Eli knew basic fencing skills, but this was nothing like the fencing opponents he was used to, and he definitely wasn't used to fencing with a sword made out of stone, that was for sure! The Earth Knight was equally skilled in the art as well. However, since Eli weighed significantly less than the knight made it easier to dodge the oncoming blows, and the Earth Knight began to tire. Finally, with a parry, Eli managed to knock the Earth Knight's sword out of his hand.

"Checkmate," he said. The Earth Knight held his hands up in defeat.

"You win," he said. "You may kill me, but know that I die with my heart still devoted to justice!"

"Oh relax, Stoney," Toad said. "We're not gonna kill you!"

"You're not?" the Earth Knight asked, confused. "But you're an evil sorcerer! You murdered this beautiful creature, and then you defeated me! You _must_ kill me!"

"That wasn't a beautiful creature!" Luigi shouted. "That was a Fire Knight!"

"It was sent by Adara the Fire Mistress," Toad said.

"And everyone knows how evil she is," Eli said.

"Nonetheless," the Earth Knight said, "according to the Order of the Knights of the Stone Table, if an Earth Knight is defeated, he must be killed by the enemy."

"Sounds like this guy's been reading one too many fairy tails," Mario said. "What are we gonna do? I don't want to kill the guy!"

"I have an idea," the Princess said, and she walked up to the Earth Knight. "Brave knight, your valor has impressed me. As ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, I generously spare your life, but you are now my prisoner, and you must follow me to the Water Lord."

"Very well," the Earth Knight said, bowing. "Let it be so."

"Now that we've got _that_ settled," Mario said, "let's finish fixing that boat!"

Once our heroes had everything, Mario and Luigi hammered the planks onto the boat. Eli waved his magic wand to seal the boat's cracks so there wouldn't be any leaks. Then they climbed in (along with the Earth Knight), and followed the river to the Water House. When they arrived, they found a throne made of ice, and two water elementals standing guard.

"Excuse me!" Eli called to the guards. "Would you kindly tell us if we can see the Water Lord?"

"The Lord's stained glass portrait is broken," one of the guards said. "Mourning has been declared and all audiences are cancelled. Everyone is advised to grieve."

"All this because of a broken window?" Mario asked under his breath. "Listen, fellas, we really need to see the Water Lord! If we don't, the whole world could be destroyed!"

"Wait a minute," Luigi said, looking around. "There's lots of pieces of broken glass around here. I think I've got an idea. If we can fix the Water Lord's portrait, do you think we can see him?"

"Well . . . ." the other guard said, thoughtfully. "That may stand in contrast with our etiquette, but you can give it a try. Knock yourselves out."

"Okay, let's get to work, everybody!" Mario shouted. "The sooner we put the window together, the sooner we can see the Water Lord!"

Immediately, our heroes got to work gathering the broken pieces of the stained glass. Once they found them all, Eli gathered them in front of him, took out his magic wand, and waved it. The pieces flew back into the spot where the portrait once was, but it was a bit mixed up.

"Uh oh," he said. "I must've used the wrong spell."

"I think I can fix it," Toad said, climbing up to the portrait frame. He touched a piece of the stained glass, and turned it in a circle.

"This should do it," he said. "To everything, turn, turn, turn!"

Once Toad turned the pieces of the window into their correct places, the Water Lord rose from the water. Immediately, Eli kneeled before him. Mario, Luigi, Toad, and the Princess did the same.

"Your Lordship," Eli said, "my friends and I are here looking for the Water Shard of the Great Key."

"The Lady of the Lake informed us you would be visiting, young Eli Mentelle," the Water Lord said. "We are aware of your plight. In acknowledgement of your assistance in repairing the portrait, we grant you this favor. But we expect something in return."

"I knew there'd be a catch," Toad said, sourly.

"Shhh!" the Princess hissed.

"Leave this young Knight of Earth here at our court," the Water Lord continued. "We shall instruct him in the chivalric code and etiquette."

"Well, what do you say, Stoney?" Mario asked.

"It would be a privilege to swear an oath to such a magnificent sovereign!" the Earth Knight shouted, excitedly.

"I don't know what he said," Luigi said, "but I think he'll do it, your Lordship, sir."

"In that case, here is the Water Shard," the Water Lord said, waving his hand. A blue crystal appeared from out of nowhere.

"Thank you, my lord," Eli said, grabbing the shard.

"Now we bid you farewell, young Eli," the Water Lord said. "And we wish you the best of luck in your noble quest."

The Water Lord waved his hand again, opening up the portal to the Magic Tower.


	6. Adara Attacks

The minute our heroes returned to the Magic Tower, Eli set the Water Shard in the Aura Scanner, and looked at where they were to go this time. The picture in the scanner showed a castle of sorts.

"That's the Sky Castle," Eli said. "It must be where the Air Shard is."

Eli immediately got to work setting the Lidar. Once it was set, a turquoise beam shone to the Magic Tower, and the group set off, but before Eli could leave the room, the door suddenly slammed shut on him, and he was unable to open it. Mario grabbed the handle from the other side, but the door wouldn't open.

"What's going on here?" he asked. "Hey, Eli! Is the door stuck on your side, too?"

"Yeah," Eli said, trying to turn the handle. "This is really weird. Look, you guys go see if the portal's open, while I try to figure this out!"

"Okay," Mario said. "Come on, guys!"

The group ran outside to the portal, and found it was open, but the group didn't want to leave without Eli. After all, he was the one who knew about the areas of Elementia, and they didn't. Eli ran over to the window, and shrugged.

"The door is completely jammed up here," he said. "Looks like the only way out is down."

"Be careful, Eli!" the Princess shouted. "That's a pretty long way down from up there!"

"Don't worry, Princess," Eli said. "A little air spell, and I should land just find."

Before Eli could climb onto the windowsill to jump, he was blocked off by a set of bars, and they were set too close together for him to squeeze through.

"What the . . . ." he said. He tried grabbing the bars in order to shake them loose, but the minute he touched them, they burned his hands, and he immediately let go.

"Ouch!" he shouted. "Wait a minute . . . . I know what's going on! Aunt Adara is behind this!"

"So glad you noticed, my dear nephew," a voice shouted, from out of nowhere.

"Wh-wh-who said that?" Luigi asked, nervously.

"Why, I did, silly boy," the voice said again.

The group looked skyward, and saw a giant sheet of flame flash before them. When it cleared, a beautiful, but evil looking woman appeared, floating down from the sky.

"I knew it," Eli groaned. "I just _knew_ you were behind all of this, Aunt Adara!"

"Of course I am," Adara said, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "Now if I were you, Eli, I'd give me the key shards you've already collected."

"And let you take over Elementia?" Toad asked. "Not a chance!"

"I don't know who you, or your friends are, little mushroom man," Adara said, glaring at Toad. "But I'm not going to let _anyone_ stand in my way!"

Adara created a flame in her hand, and threw it at Toad as hard as she could.

"Scatter!" Mario shouted.

All four of our heroes dove in four different directions, figuring Adara couldn't hit all of them at once. But not even this phased her. She just poised her hand like a gun, and began twirling, shooting off fireballs in rapid succession as she did. Luckily, Eli was not completely helpless. He still had his magic wand, and at least that could fit through the bars on the window. He waved it, and a blast of water came shooting out of it, hitting Adara square in the chest, and knocking her off her feet. The sudden blast also doused her fireballs.

"Why you little . . . ." she shouted, sputtering. "Oooh! You're just like your father, you impudent little water bug! Just wait until I get my hands on you!"

"I've got just as much water power in here as you have fire power in your little finger, Auntie," Eli said. "I can douse anything you throw at me and my friends!"

"Very well, then," Adara said, wringing out the hem of her dress. "We'll just see who has the last laugh. Good luck finding the rest of the shards, Eli, dear. Because I'm not about to let you out of the tower, and without your magic, your friends will never be able to recover them! For now, I'm off to the Sky Castle, to retrieve the Air Shard!"

Adara laughed evilly, and exited the same way she came, in a flash of fire.

"You know she's right?" Luigi said. "Without Eli, we'll never be able to get the rest of the key shards!"

"Can't you use that wand to get out of there, Eli?" Toad asked.

"Unfortunately, no," Eli said. "When it comes to Aunt Adara's fire power, I can counteract it, but I can't break any of her magic spells, so I'm stuck here. You guys will have to find the shards without me."

"How can we do that?" Luigi asked. "None of us can do magic like you can! And we don't even know what to be looking for!"

"Don't worry, Luigi," Eli said. "I have some things that can help you."

Eli walked over to another shelf, and dug a box out from behind a row of books. He opened it, and took out a circular pendant, with six different colored wedges making up the circle. He also took a book from the shelf, along with his wand, and threw them down to Mario and his friends.

"Here, catch!" he shouted.

Mario caught the pendant and the magic wand, and Luigi caught the book.

"What are these for?" Mario asked.

"The pendant will give you the same elemental powers I've been using," Eli said. "My father gave me that pendant when I was first learning to master the elements. It's sort of like training wheels for a bicycle. All you have to do is concentrate on the element you want to use, and how you want to use it. Believe me, it will work, even if you're not a wizard!"

"How does the magic wand work?" the Princess asked.

"And what's the book for?" Toad asked.

"The book has information on every location in Elementia," Eli explained. "It also has magic spells in them, and instructions on how to use the wand. All you have to do for the wand is find the spell you want to use and follow the patterns in the book. While you guys are doing that, I'll look through the books here and see if I can find a way to get out of here."

"I'm not sure about this," Mario said.

"Trust me, Mario," Eli said. "It's the only thing you can do for now."

"Maybe we oughta wait until you find a way to break your aunt's spell and get out of there," Luigi said.

"It might take awhile," Eli said. "And we don't have that kind of time to wait. You have to get to the Sky Castle and find the Air Shard before Aunt Adara does! If she finds it before you do, she can use it to find the Energy Shard. Then she'll come back here and use the Air and Energy Shards against us to get to the other shards."

"We don't have a choice," the Princess said. "Come on, guys! We're off to the Sky Castle!"


	7. The Sky Castle

Mario, Luigi, the Princess, and Toad were about to go through the portal, but that same ghostly apparition appeared once more.

"The power of this place is yours to command," he said. "But your path is hidden in darkness. If only . . . ."

"Oh brother, not the cards again!" Toad groaned.

"The game calls," the apparition said. "It beckons. It demands . . . ."

"Okay, deal 'em," Mario sighed.

The apparition dealt the cards, and Mario once more got to work sorting them in their correct order, but he was getting a little tired of this game.

"I'm defeated . . . ." the apparition said, like he couldn't believe it. "Nevertheless, you may pass. Did my cards let me down?"

"Guess so, pal," Mario said, shrugging.

The apparition said nothing, and disappeared.

"Come on!" Toad shouted. "We've got to get to the Sky Castle!"

"It's gonna be weird going there without Eli," Mario said. "I don't know if I can do it!"

"Of course you can, Mario!" the Princess shouted. "Eli gave you everything we need! We can't let him down!"

"Yeah, I guess you're right, Princess," Mario said. "Though I think I'd feel a lot better if he gave me a meatball sandwich."

"Let's get the Air Shard first," Luigi said. "Then we can talk about lunch."

With that, the quartet went through the portal to the Sky Castle. When the got there, they found it in a state if disarray.

"Look at this place!" Luigi shouted. "It's an even bigger mess than Mario's room back in Brooklyn!"

"Very funny," Mario said sarcastically.

"I wonder where the castle's mistress is?" the Princess asked. "Eli told us she'd be here."

"Maybe we ought to ask one of them," Toad asked, pointing to a little air elemental floating around.

"Hiya!" the air elemental shouted. "Wanna play a game?"

"Sorry, little fella," Mario said. "But we don't have time for games right now. We need to see the Mistress of the Castle as soon as possible!"

"Awwww . . . ." the air elemental said, sniffling. "No one wants to play with us. That mean old flame man broke our carousel, and took the Mistress away! We've got nothing to play with now! Just this stuff."

"What is that?" the Princess asked, but the air elemental flew away without answering the question.

"Wait a minute and I'll look it up," Luigi said, opening the book Eli gave the group.

"We don't have time for that!" Mario shouted. "We've got to get into the castle and save the Mistress from that mean old flame the little guy was talking about!"

Mario stormed up to the door and knocked on it. The door seemed to be alive, and it looked at Mario, menacingly.

"No entry!" it shouted. "Enemy spotted. Commencing attack!"

The door opened it's mouth, and blasted a huge gust of wind at Mario, knocking him into Luigi, the Princess, and Toad, bowling them over like bowling pins.

"What do we do now?" Luigi asked, as the door blew another gust of wind at our heroes.

"Mario, use Eli's pendant!" the Princess shouted.

"Well . . . ." Mario said, gulping. "I'll give it a shot. I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but I'll try."

"Try using stones!" Toad shouted. "If water is the opposite of fire, maybe earth is the opposite of air!"

Mario shrugged. It was as good an idea as any. Besides, he didn't have anything better in mind. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the earth element, just like Eli had said. Then he held up his hand, and a large stone flew from it. He held up his other hand, and another stone flew from it as well. Mario kept this up until he managed to create a large stone wall between him and his friends, and the castle door. Finally, the castle door wore down.

"Yay, Mario!" the Princess cheered. "You did it!"

"Yeah, I guess I did, didn't I?" Mario said.

"Way to go, Mario!" Luigi shouted.

"Yeah, dude!" Toad shouted. "You really rock!"

"Oh _Toad_!" the Princess groaned. "Did you _have_ to say _that_?"

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself," Toad said, shrugging.

"Now let's get back to business," Mario said, as the stone wall disappeared.

"No enemy," the door said. "You human. You come."

"Why did you attack us like that?" Mario asked. "We're just here to help!"

"Error," the castle door said. "Gears melting. Error. Cannot access keystones. Insufficient energy to proceed."

"What does that mean?" Mario asked.

"Well, according to Eli's book," Luigi said, turning pages, "Energy crystals are missing in the door slots."

"Uh oh!" Mario shouted, looking over Luigi's shoulder at the page he was turned to.

"Uh oh?" Luigi asked, giving his brother a weird look.

"Look at the picture of the energy crystals in the book," Mario said. "One of them is the same as that little air elemental was carrying."

"And it looks like some of the other elementals are carrying them, too," Toad said.

"Then that means . . . ." Luigi said.

"Uh ohhhhhh!" both Mario Bros. shouted in unison.

"And something tells me those little guys won't give up their toys so easily," Toad said. "What do we do now?"

"Well, the air elemental mentioned this flame thing broke a carousel," the Princess said. "Is there anything about that in the book, Luigi?"

"Uhhhh . . . ." Luigi mumbled, as he began turning pages. "Yeah! Yeah, here it is, Princess! And I get what you're saying. If we put the Wind Carousel back together, maybe the little elementals will give us the energy crystals."

"Well then," Mario said, "let's get to work finding the pieces!"

Luigi showed everyone the picture in the book so they would know what to look for, and immediately got started. Once they found all the pieces, Mario took Eli's book from Luigi, and looked through it.

"Ah ha!" he shouted. "Here's a repair spell. All I have to do is wave Eli's magic wand in the same patterns as the pictures in the book!"

"I hope you know what you're doing!" Toad said.

"Of course I do!" Mario shouted.

"Just in case, Mario," Luigi said, backing away and hiding behind a glowing crystal stalagmite. "I think I'll watch from back here."

Mario glared at his brother, and began waving the magic wand in the patterns indicated by the book. Once he did, the carousel managed to put itself back together, and the little air elementals gathered around it.

"Yay!" the ringleader shouted. "We won't be bored anymore! We don't need these toys anymore. You can have them."

With that, the air elementals dropped the energy crystals on the ground, and went to play on the Wind Carousel. Mario and the Princess gathered the crystals, and put them in the slots in the door. Once they did, the crystals glowed, and the door started opening.

"Danger notification," it said. "Beware! Fiery foe detected in the castle!"

"Uh oh," Mario said. "Must be one of Adara's minions."

"Come on, let's go get the Air Shard before it does!" the Princess shouted.

And with that, the foursome raced inside the castle doors. However all they could find was a mess of gears and switches, and a dead end.

"We have to get to the top of the castle," the Princess said.

"But how?" Mario asked. "This is a dead end room!"

"Didja _have_ to use _that_ word?" Luigi groaned.

"Look in the book, Luigi," Mario said. "Maybe there's something in there that can help."

Luigi sighed, and began turning the pages in the book. He began skimming, and finally found something useful.

"According to the book," he said, "there's supposed to be an elevator here, activated by a control board. That's probably it over there."

"How's it supposed to work?" Toad asked. "There aren't any buttons!"

"I guess we'll have to look for them," Mario said. "Let's go."

Once the group had all nine switches, they attached them to the control board, but nothing happened. Mario then began to pull the switches, trying to figure out what would make the elevator work. It was a bit frustrating, since pulling one switch seemed to activate some of the other switches. After a bit of trial and error, he finally managed to put them all in the upright position, and the elevator platform appeared. Our heroes climbed on, and rode to the top spire of the castle. Once they were there, they found a large dome, and some other machinery.

"Help!" they heard a voice call from inside the dome. "Someone help me!"

"Hush-sh-sh!" another voice shouted. "No point to shcream. No one hearsh-sh-sh. No one comesh-sh-sh!"

"That must be the Mistress of the Castle inside that dome!" the Princess shouted.

"And that's a fire elemental's voice if I ever heard one!" Toad shouted.

"We've got to get her out of there!" the Princess shouted.

"Check the book for that machine on the platform, Luigi!" Mario shouted. "I don't know what it is, or how it works, but the book might!"

"Yeah, here it is," Luigi said. "Unfortunately, it looks like the control panel will only work with three keys."

"Well then let's get to work and find them!" Mario shouted. "That fire elemental must be waiting inside for Adara to show up, and she might force the Mistress to give her the Air Shard!"

Immediately, our heroes began looking for the keys they would need to open the control panel for the dome. Once they found them, they stuck them into the control panel, but found it had no gears inside.

"Great," the Princess groaned. "Now what are we supposed to do?"

"Find the gears, what else?" Mario asked, picking up a gear from the floor.

The group gathered up as many gears as they could find. Luigi took them, and began fitting them into the control panel, using trial and error. Finally, he got the gears in place, and the dome opened. Inside was the Mistress of the Castle, and the biggest fire elemental the group had come across yet.

"Uh oh . . . ." Mario said, nervously.

"Ha-sh-sh-sh!" the fire elemental shouted, and waved it's arm, sending a blast of fireballs at our heroes.

"Yikes!" Luigi shouted, jumping backwards to avoid getting barbecued.

Unfortunately, when Luigi landed, he found himself teetering on the edge of the platform.

"Whoooaaa, whooaaaa!" he shouted, waving his arms, trying to regain his balance, but it wasn't going to do him any good.

"Yeow!" he shouted, as he fell off the platform, but he managed to grab it before he could completely fall.

"Luigi!" Mario gasped, and ran over to his brother.

"Mario, help!" Luigi shouted. "I don't know how long I can hold on like this!"

Toad and the Princess tried to run over as well, but they were blocked off by a wall of flame, created by the fire elemental.

"You'd better do something, Mario!" Toad shouted. "Things are really heating up fast!"

"Right, just as soon as . . . ." Mario shouted, but he was cut off by a fireball whizzing past. It missed him, but it managed to singe Luigi's hand, slightly.

"Yeeeouch!" Luigi shouted. Unfortunately, this caused him to let go of the platform, leaving him hanging by one hand.

"Holy ravioli!" he shouted. "Mario, do something before I lose my grip completely!"

"Oh boy, I'm really up the pipe without a plunger!" Mario shouted. "If I let my guard down and save Luigi first, that human match might take that chance to fry me! But if I fight broiler breath first, my brother could lose his grip and wind up as a plumber pancake! What am I gonna do?"

"Don't worry!" the Mistress of the Castle shouted. "I'll help you!"

The Mistress closed her eyes, and held her arms in the air. A funnel cloud appeared from her hands, and wrapped itself around the fire elemental. It growled, and tried to break out of it's trap.

"I won't be able to hold him for long," the Mistress said. "Quickly now, save your brother before he falls!"

"Right!" Mario shouted. "Don't worry, little brother! I'm coming! Just hang in there!"

"Like I've got a choice?" Luigi asked.

Mario closed his eyes, and concentrated as hard as he could. He held up his hand, and a vine came out. Once he lowered it, Luigi grabbed it, and held onto it for dear life, as Mario pulled him back onto the platform.

"Whoa, that was too close!" Luigi shouted. "Thanks, Mario. For a minute there, I thought I was gondola!"

"So did I," Mario said.

"I can't hold this fiery beast any longer!" the Mistress suddenly shouted, as she lost control of her tornado, and it disappeared. The fire elemental growled, and approached Mario and Luigi, ready to throw the biggest fireball it could muster at them.

"Yikes!" Luigi shouted. "He's gonna turn us into crispy critters!"

"Oh yeah?" Mario shouted. "Nobody's gonna charbroil my brother while I'm around!"

Mario closed his eyes, concentrated, and shot the biggest blast of water from his hands as he possibly could, using so much pressure, a firehose would be envious. The fire elemental screamed as he was extinguished completely. The wall of flame that blocked Toad and the Princess dissolved immediately.

"Hooray for Mario!" the Princess shouted.

"Nice going, dude!" Toad shouted, winking, and giving Mario a thumb's up.

"Thank you for saving me," the Mistress said, coming over to the group. "How can I repay you?"

"That's easy," Mario said. "Give us the Air Shard of the Great Key. Eli Mentelle sent us for it."

"Certainly," the Mistress said. She waved her hand, and a turquoise crystal appeared in it. She handed it to Mario.

"Take it with my compliments," she said. "And please say hello to young Eli and his parents next time you see them."

"We sure will, Mistress," Mario said, sticking the shard in his pocket. "And thanks!"

The Mistress nodded, and waved her hand again, opening the portal to the Magic Tower.

"Only two more shards to go!" Toad shouted. "And hopefully, they'll be easier to get than this one was!"


	8. Adara's Ultimatum

"Hey, Eli!" Mario called up once he and the others returned. "We got the Air Shard!"

"Great!" Eli called. He reached his hand carefully between the bars, and used a small tornado to bring the Air Shard to him. But before he had a chance to reach it, a flaming arrow shot past, grazing Eli's hand.

"Ow!" Eli shouted, drawing his hand back to him.

Unfortunately, Eli's spell was interrupted, and he wound up dropping the Air Shard to the ground. Mario ran to retrieve it, but the arrow morphed into a large, red snake. It hissed, and lunged toward the plumber, and a small fireball came shooting out of it's mouth.

"Yikes!" he shouted.

The snake then grabbed the Air Shard in it's mouth, and slithered away. Mario chased after it, but stopped dead in his tracks when the snake morphed into none other than Adara, and she was throwing the Air Shard in the air, and catching it in her hand.

"Did we lose something?" she asked, smiling wickedly.

"Uh oh . . . ." Mario said.

Adara smirked. She gripped the Air Shard tightly in one hand, and then raised her other hand and wiggled her fingers. A gust of wind flew from them and into the tower window, creating a tornado that swept the other four key shards into it, so fast nobody had any time to stop it.

"Oh no!" the Princess shouted.

"Somebody better do something . . . ." Toad said.

"Oh, I intend do, my filthy little fungus," Adara said. She snapped her fingers, and a fleet of fire elementals surrounded our heroes.

"Goodness gracious!" the Princess gasped.

"Great balls of fire!" Toad shouted.

"Attack, my little pretties!" Adara shouted, and she began cackling as she floated into the air, about to make her escape.

Immediately, Mario closed his eyes, and concentrated. Then he held up both of his hands, poised his fingers as if they were guns, and began shooting water at the fireballs, extinguishing them all.

"How do you like them apples, Adara?" he asked.

"I'm not licked yet, fatso!" Adara shouted. "Don't forget, with these key shards, I can control the other elements as well as fire!"

Adara took the Earth Shard, held it tightly, and waved her arm in a circle, thrusting it skyward. Large boulders began raining down from the sky.

"She's trying to rock us to sleep!" Toad shouted. "With real rocks, yet!"

"Take cover, everybody!" Mario shouted.

The foursome took off running, dodging falling rocks as they went. Adara merely laughed, and continued bringing the rocks down on our heroes. She also used the Nature Shard to bring tree roots up out of the ground to trip them up. Mario, Toad, and the Princess dodged them pretty easily. Luigi, however, wasn't paying attention to where he was running. He was looking through Eli's book, trying to find something in there to counteract Adara. He wound up tripping over one of the roots, and landing flat on his stomach. He got up just in time to see a gigantic boulder heading straight for him.

"Holy ravioli!" he shouted, too scared to even try to get out of the way.

"I can't look!" Toad shouted, covering his eyes.

Mario wasted no time. He closed his eyes, concentrated, and blasted the biggest blast of wind he could out of his hand.

"Return to sender!" he shouted, sending the boulder back to Adara.

Adara screamed, and moved in the nick of time. The boulder came crashing down where it couldn't do any damage to anyone, or anything. While Adara was momentarily distracted, Mario ran over to Luigi, and pulled him to his feet.

"You okay, Luigi?" he asked.

"Yeah, thanks, Mario," Luigi said.

"Forget about it," Mario said. "You know I'd never let anything happen to my little brother!"

"How very interesting," Adara said. " _Very_ interesting indeed."

Adara gripped the Nature Shard once more, and raised her hand. A large vine sprouted from the ground, wrapped itself around Luigi's chest, and lifted him into the air, towards Adara.

"Whoa!" Luigi shouted. "Mario! Help!"

"Luigi!" Mario shouted.

Mario grabbed onto Luigi's legs, in an attempt to pull him down. Toad, and the Princess grabbed onto Mario's legs to help. Adara laughed smugly, gripped the Nature Shard tighter, and waved her hand back and forth. This caused the vine to wiggle a bit, and it practically flung Mario and his friends off.

"Mario!" Luigi shouted.

Adara then moved her index finger in a circular pattern, causing the vine to wrap itself over Luigi's mouth, preventing him from calling out to his brother.

"I abhor noisy prisoners," she said.

However, Mario, Toad, and the Princess weren't going to be defeated easily. They jumped right back onto the vine, and began riding it up toward Adara.

"You bring my brother back down here, or else, Adara!" Mario shouted, waving Eli's wand.

"Or else what, my fine, fat foe?" Adara asked.

"Or else I'll . . . . I'll . . . ." Mario said. "I'll think of something!"

Adara merely laughed, until a gust of wind hit her square in the chest, knocking her backward a little. She was so startled, she dropped all of the Great Key shards. A small tornado picked them up, and brought them back to the Magic Tower window. Then, before Adara had a chance to recover, a small fireball came shooting by, severing the vine. Mario, Toad, and the Princess fell to the ground, but unfortunately, Luigi was within Adara's reach, and she grabbed him before he could fall as well.

"Darn it!" Eli shouted. "My aim was a little off!"

"And a good thing for me that it was, Eli, dear," Adara said. "Otherwise, tall, green, and skinny here wouldn't be in my clutches right now."

"As princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, I demand that you let Luigi go immediately!" the Princess demanded.

"Oh please!" Adara scoffed. "I don't take orders from you, you pathetic little princess! You can't do anything to me anyway! No, he stays with me."

"Why you . . . . you witch!" Mario shouted. He closed his eyes, and concentrated on creating the biggest wind storm he could muster. "I'm gonna hit you with such a big hurricane, it'll blow you into next, next, _next_ Tuesday!"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, lard belly," Adara said, snapping her fingers, and creating a small flame at her fingertip. She then held it extremely close to Luigi's face, nearly scorching his mustache.

"Take one more step, roly-poly," she said, "and I'll give your brother a shave he'll _never_ forget! And I won't just stop at his cookie duster, either!"

"You wouldn't!" Mario shouted.

"Oh, wouldn't I?" Adara asked. "Just try me! One false move, and he's toast! Literally!"

Mario immediately stopped his concentration. He wasn't going to risk Luigi getting hurt, that was for sure.

"That's more like it," Adara said. "I'm going to give you one last chance. I'm going to allow you to find the sixth and final shard of the Great Key. Once you are in possession of all six shards, you will surrender them to me!"

"And if we refuse?" the Princess asked.

"Then you'll never see your little friend again!" Adara shouted, and she began raising herself higher into the air.

"No!" Mario shouted. He jumped into the air to try to grab Adara, but she was too far out of reach. She cackled madly, and disappeared, taking Luigi with her.

"Luigi!" Mario cried. Then he clenched his fists, and glared up at the sky. "That does it! She's gone too far this time! She's gone and made me mad now! I'm gonna get her if it's the last thing I do!"

"Going after her now might very well be the last thing you do!" Eli shouted. "My guess is that she's taking Luigi to the Temple of Flames. That's where she lives. And you're going to need all six shards to rescue him."

"Are you saying we actually hand over the key shards?" the Princess asked, giving Eli a weird look.

"You off your rocker or something?!" Toad shouted.

"No, I'm not saying that," Eli said. "I'm saying it might take the Great Key itself to defeat my aunt. The pendant can only do so much. She's got more fire power than the Fire Shard, the pendant, my magic wand, and my parents and me put together!"

"That's a lot of fire power!" Toad shouted.

"I think Eli's right, Mario," the Princess said.

"I hate to leave Luigi in that witch's clutches any longer than I have to," Mario said, "but I guess you're right, Princess. Okay, Eli. Let's get to it!"

Eli took the Air Shard and placed it on the Aura Scanner. A cave appeared in the panel.

"Okay, guys," Eli said, as he began setting the Lidar. "Your next stop is Thunder Hills. Once you get there, try to find the Grim Peak. That's where the Great Dragon lives, and he should have the Energy Shard."

"Will do, chief!" Toad shouted, saluting.

Eli then used a small tornado to send the key shards down to Mario. The plumber immediately caught them, and put them into his overalls. The group then waited until a purple beam of light hit the Magic Tower, and started for the portal. But, just as every other time, the strange apparition appeared before them.

"Not aga- _ain_!" Toad whined.

"What is it _this_ time?" Mario asked with an impatient sigh.

"You are strong and wise," the apparition said. "You won with me many times. Alas, my deck is too simple for you. I need a new one. Still, I shall not let you pass without a trial!"

"Look, ghost dude," Toad said, "or whatever you are. We're getting pretty sick and tired of all these trials you're putting us through! So how about this time, we skip the whole thing, and you let us pass now?"

"This is the law," the apparition said. "If no cards are thrown, this dispute must be resolved with force. I've told you everything. Now defend yourself!"

With that, the apparition threw his cards into the air. They disappeared, and was replaced with what looked like a chess board, except instead of chess pieces, there were small elementals on it. One side had a group of water and nature elementals, while the other side had earth and energy elementals. The apparition pointed to one of the earth elementals to move forward, and it did.

"Oh no," Eli groaned. "Elemental Chess! I _hate_ this game!"

"What's the matter with it?" Mario asked.

"You two keep moving elementals back and forth and try to zap the other player's pieces until they're all gone," Eli explained. "One advantage is putting three elements together vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, and they level up. But they can still be hit and gradually level back down again. And I get the feeling this apparition thing is going to be zap happy if you have any element with more than a level one, so be careful, Mario!"

"I never was good at chess," Mario said, but he moved one of his nature elements forward, and managed to zap one of the apparition's earth elements, causing it to disappear.

It was an intense game. Eli was right about one thing, the apparition did indeed get very zap happy toward Mario's elements. Finally, they were both down to their last elements. Mario moved his water element, and managed to zap the apparition's energy element, and the game was over.

"Bah!" the apparition shouted, and disappeared.

"Yay, Mario!" the Princess shouted.

"It was nothing," Mario said. "Now let's get through this portal before anything else happens!"


	9. Thunder Hills

Mario, Toad, and the Princess immediately raced into the portal. There was no time to lose. Once they were through, they found themselves on a cliffside, where gears, computer chips, and other odds and ends were laying about. A path led to a large peak in the distance.

"That must be Grim Peak," the Princess said.

"So what are we waiting for?" Toad asked. "Let's go! You take the high road, and I'll take the low road, and I'll be at Grim Peak before ya!"

Toad started off, but ended up coming face to face with a wall of lightning. He immediately screamed, and retreated. Luckily, he wasn't hurt.

"Wow, that'll really shock it to you!" Mario shouted.

"We'll never get past that without being barbecued," Toad said.

"There must be something here that will help us get rid of the lightning wall," the Princess said.

"Boy, am I sure glad Luigi dropped Eli's book earlier," Mario said, opening the book and turning the pages. "Here's something we can use! We can use the wreckage around here to build a lightning rod! Help me gather up this junk and we'll get to work!"

Mario, Toad, and the Princess immediately began picking up the gears and other items that were scattered on the cliffside. Once they got everything together, Mario put them into the control panel, and turned it on. All of the lightning was soon attracted to the lightning rod that sat next to the control panel, clearing the way.

"Last one to Grim Peak is a soggy meatball sandwich!" Mario called.

However, before our heroes could even take one step forward, something came up from under the ground. It was three very large energy elementals, and they didn't look very friendly.

"Hey!" one shouted. "What do you think you're doing, huh? You've got some nerve!"

"Sorry, fellas," Mario said. "We can't stay and talk now. We've got to pass through."

"You want to pass?" the second energy elemental asked. "You shouldn't be messing about here, you should be fighting to the bitter end! I guess that's not your strong point, is it, fatso?"

"I wouldn't under estimate Mario if I were you, fellas!" Toad shouted. "He's beaten his share of fire elementals, and you guys might end up as casualties if you're not careful!"

"Oh, a wise guy, huh?" the third energy elemental said. "You're asking for a serious beating, Tubby! Get him, boys!"

"Aahhh!" Toad shouted, and he and the Princess ducked out of sight, since they didn't have anything to fight with.

Mario glared at the electricity charged trio, then closed his eyes, and concentrated as hard as he could. Water seemed to be the best choice for this, since everyone knows water and electricity don't mix. Once he was concentrating on the element he wanted, he held up his hand, and a blast of water sailed out of it, dousing the elementals. In a flash of sparks, the elementals shorted out, and disappeared.

"That should take care of them," Mario said. "Come on, you two! We've got to find the Great Dragon!"

"I hope he's a friendly dragon," the Princess said, nervously, and she, Toad, and Mario went down the path to Grim Peak.

Once the trio arrived at Grim Peak, they saw a cave, and a very familiar looking Earth Knight. He was cowering in front of the cave's entrance, completely petrified.

"Hey, Sir Stone!" Mario shouted. "What are you doing here?"

The Earth Knight's only answer was a string of incoherent babbling.

"Forget it, Mario," Toad said. "He's not gonna be able to help us much as he is now. Come on, let's forget about him and get into the cave."

"I'd rather not," the Princess said. "It's too dark to see in there."

"Let's see what the book has to say," Mario said, taking out Eli's book, and turning the pages. "Here we go! The Wand of Light! We'll need ten bones, eight feathers, two yellow stones, and the skull of a six horned beast."

"I've got that covered," Toad said, picking up a skull with six horns that was laying behind the Earth Knight.

"Something tells me the dragon isn't fond of guests," the Princess said, picking up a bone she found laying near a ribcage of some sort of large animal she couldn't identify.

"Let's look for the other stuff," Mario said. "And hurry!"

Toad and the Princess nodded, and the trio immediately got to work. Once they had everything, Mario took out Eli's magic wand, turned to a page in the book that gave him the spell he needed to put everything together, and waved the wand, following the patterns in the book. Once he was finished, everything came together to create the Wand of Light.

"Now we can get into the cave," he said.

"Are we sure we want to?" Toad asked, nervously.

"Hmmm," Mario said, shining the Wand of Light inside the cave. There were several tunnels and corridors in there. It looked like a maze.

"Maybe we should try something else," he said.

"Maybe the Earth Knight can help," the Princess said. "Look, he's carrying an envelope."

"Yeah, but he's too terrified to even think straight!" Toad shouted.

"Here's a spell for a tranquilizer," Mario said. "Let's brew it and give it to the Earth Knight. Then maybe he'll be able to help us."

The Princess and Toad nodded, and helped Mario gather the ingredients for the potion. Once they had everything, Mario waved Eli's wand to conjure up a cauldron, dumped everything in, and waved the wand again to mix everything together. Once it was ready, Mario gave it to the Earth Knight. Once the knight drank the potion, he seemed to calm down.

"Thank you, noble sir!" the Earth Knight shouted. "I feel better now."

"Good," Mario said. "But what are you doing here?"

"And why did you leave the Water Lord?" the Princess asked.

"The Water Lord sent me to deliver a message to the mighty Dragon of Thunder Hills," the Earth Knight said. "But I'm so scared! Here's a map of the maze and an official decree from his Lordship. Please take it to the dragon, I don't think I can go in there myself!"

"Oh brother, some knight!" Toad shouted.

"Sure, we'll take it to the dragon for you," Mario said. "Come on, guys! The sooner we find the dragon, the sooner we get the Energy Shard! And the sooner we get the Energy Shard, the sooner we can rescue Luigi!"

Thanks to the map, Mario, Toad, and the Princess found their way through the maze and to the center of the cave fairly quickly. There they found a huge pile of treasures, and a sleeping green dragon. He was about about a foot taller than Eli.

"That's the Great Dragon of Thunder Hills?" Toad asked.

"I was expecting something bigger," Mario said. "Oh well. We'd better wake him up."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" the Princess asked.

"Relax, Princess," Mario said. "I know what I'm doing. Excuse me, Mr. Dragon? Time to wake up!"

Mario took the dragon's hand, and began pulling on it, trying to wake up the great beast. The Dragon woke up with a start, and was not at all happy about it.

"WHO DARES DISTURB MY SLEEP?!" he bellowed. "I AM THE GREAT DRAGON OF THUNDER HILLS!"

"Uh oh!" Mario shouted.

The Dragon roared, and shot a sheet of flame out of his mouth at our heroes. They jumped out of the way in the nick of time. Mario then pulled Eli's pendant out from under his shirt and held it up.

"Wait, wait!" he shouted. "We were sent by Eli Mentelle, to retrieve the Energy Shard of the Great Key!"

The Dragon stopped his rampage, sniffed at the pendant, and studied it intently. Then he calmed down significantly.

"Why didn't you say so in the first place?" the Dragon asked. Then he stifled a yawn. "Excuse me. I haven't been sleeping well lately. Those elementals are really getting under my skin. I can't get any rest with them around! They robbed me yesterday, can you beat that?"

"If there were three of them, and they looked like big brutes, Mario got rid of them," Toad said.

"Aaahhh, excellent, excellent!" the Dragon shouted. "Now maybe I can get some sleep!"

"Wait, Great Dragon!" Mario shouted. "Don't go back to sleep yet! We need your help! We're looking for the Energy Shard of the Great Key!"

"Oh that thing," the Dragon said. "Yes, I've got it. But I can't part with it. It's so shiny . . . . so pretty . . . ."

"Oh, but we _really_ need it!" the Princess shouted.

"Yeah," Mario said. "Adara the Fire Mistress kidnapped my brother, and we need all six of the shards in order to rescue him!"

"The Fire Mistress, huh?" the Great Dragon said. "Hmmm. That's different. I'll tell you what. You get my stolen treasure back, and then we'll talk. Here. Take my magic lens, and this chest. Those elementals hid them all over the cliffs, but you won't be able to find them without my lens. They're tricky devils."

"Okay, let's go," Mario said.

Once the trio was at the cave entrance, Mario looked through the lens, looking for various hidden treasures. Once he spotted one, he touched the space on the rocks where the elementals hid it, and it appeared for Toad and the Princess to see.

"Wow!" Toad shouted. "I wonder how the elementals did that!"

"Beats me," the Princess said, shrugging. "Magic, I guess."

"I hope this doesn't take too long," Mario said, picking up another piece of the Dragon's treasure. "I want to get Luigi out of that witch's clutches ASAP!"

Toad and the Princess really couldn't argue with that, so they stood back, and waited for Mario to finish finding the Dragon's treasures. Once they were finished, they dragged the chest back to the Great Dragon's cave.

"Here you go, Great Dragon," Mario said. "I'm pretty sure that's all of it."

"Uh huh," the Dragon said. He opened the chest, and began to look through it. Then he nodded. "Yep, that's everything. Thank you. Treasure is my weakness. I just love trinkets and baubles and shiny stuff like that! Anyway, here's the Energy Shard."

The Dragon dug into his pile of shiny treasures, and threw a purple crystal to Mario. He caught it and tucked it into his overalls.

"Thanks!" he shouted.

"Oh, before I forget," Toad said, "we have a letter for you. It's from the Water Lord."

"Oh, from Lord Water-Schmater, eh?" he asked, as he opened the letter. "It says, please provide this individual with a magical deck of Fair Play Cards. Now where did I put those? Make yourselves useful and help me find them. They're all over the place."

Mario, Toad, and the Princess looked at each other, shrugged, and began to search for the cards.

"Hey guys?" Toad asked, picking up one of the cards. "Do these cards look familiar to you?"

"Yeah, now that you mention it," Mario said. "These look like the elemental solitaire cards that apparition thing kept wanting me to play with before he'd let us go into the portal at the Magic Tower."

"What would the Water Lord want with them?" the Princess asked, as she gave the Dragon the last card.

"Only one way to find out," the Dragon said. "Let's go see."

The group walked out of the cave, and approached the Earth Knight, who was still standing at the entrance, waiting patiently.

"Hey, fella," the Dragon said. "You the guy who ol' Waterboss sent for the Fair Play cards? Heh heh. I can see right through you. He doesn't want them. You do, don't you?"

"Yes, that is correct," the Earth Knight said. "I need them."

"Then why didn't you tell us that?" the Princess asked. "We would have gone to get them for you. You didn't need to pretend."

The Earth Knight said nothing. He just smiled, and a bright glow surrounded him. Mario, Toad, and the Princess backed up, nervously. When the glow subsided, the Earth Knight was gone, and in his place was the apparition with the cards.

"Him again?!" Toad shouted. "Wait 'til I get my hands on you!"

"No need, little friend," the apparition said. "This was merely a test. And I am pleased to say you have passed, and are ready to progress."

"We have?" Mario asked. "We are?"

"Yes," the apparition said. "You now have all the shards to the Great Key. Now you must go to the Temple of Flames. Adara is holding your brother there. I'll open the portal for you. Good luck!"

The apparition stood to the side, and a large, red, glowing portal opened in front of our heroes, but Mario wasn't so sure if he could trust the apparition.

"I don't know about this," he said.

"Me neither," the Princess said.

"But I don't think we've got a choice," Toad said, shrugging. "Especially if we want to rescue Luigi!"

"You're right, Toad," Mario said. "I guess we're just gonna _have_ to trust this guy! Let's go!"

Mario, Toad, and the Princess stepped through the portal nervously, and hoped that it wasn't going to lead them into a trap.


	10. The Temple of Flames

When Mario, Toad, and the Princess exited the portal, they found themselves staring at a huge gate, with what looked like one of the fire elementals molded on the front of it. Mario ran to it, and tried to pull it open. He grunted and groaned, pulling with all his might, but the gate would not budge.

"No use," he sighed. "It's locked."

"How are we going to get in now?" the Princess asked. "I know Adara's waiting for us, but I don't want to announce we're here."

"Yeah, she'll take the shards from us before we have a chance to find Luigi," Toad said.

"What's this?" Mario asked, picking up a gear. "Weird. What's this gear doing here?"

"And what are all the rest of these gears doing scattered around here, too?" Toad asked, picking up another gear. "Somebody's been careless in their housekeeping!"

"Hmmm," the Princess said, studying the fire elemental on the gate. She saw a button on the side of it, and pushed it. The elemental split in half, and a door opened. She saw an identical button on the other side, and pushed it as well. Behind the fire elemental was a mechanism that looked like the inside of the control panel at the Sky Castle.

"Princess, you're a genius!" Mario shouted. "All we have to do is put the gears into the mechanism, and the gate's sure to open!"

"Let's gather up the gears and get to it!" Toad shouted, and he, Mario, and the Princess gathered all the gears they could find.

"I wish Luigi were here," Mario said, as he fiddled with the gears. "He's better at this sort of thing than I am!"

Once Mario fitted all the gears into the mechanism, he closed the two halves of the elemental emblem. The eyes started to glow, and then the gate opened. The trio walked through, and found themselves face to face with what looked like a Chinese temple.

"According to the book," the Princess said, "this is the Temple of Flames, and home to the Fire Mistress."

"Adara's got Luigi holed up in there somewhere," Mario said. "We've just got to find out where."

"Hey, you guys!" Toad shouted, picking up a piece of stone. "There's all these pieces scattered around here!"

"And here's an indentation of something," Mario said. "I don't know what, though."

"Looks like a fire pit," Toad said, looking into the hole the indentation was sitting in front of.

"Maybe these pieces fit in that indentation," the Princess said. "Let's find out."

The trio gathered up the pieces, and began fitting them into the indentation in front of the fire pit. Once every piece was in place, the group realized it made a picture. There were six rectangular shapes with pictures that matched the pictures etched into the Great Key shards. The pictures began to glow, matching a section of a circle in the middle of the plate. Then the lights went out, and only the yellow part of the circle glowed. Mario touched the symbol for stone, and a small light above it's picture lit up. Then the purple section of the circle lit up, and Mario touched the energy symbol. A dot above the symbol lit up.

"I think we have to light up all these little dots above each of the elemental symbols," he said. "This could take awhile."

Mario continued this pattern, touching the symbols with their corresponding color. The Princess and Toad helped out when the colors began flashing faster than Mario could touch the symbols. Finally, all of the dots lit up. Once they did, the numbers one through six appeared on the plate, and six strange columns rose from the ground. The columns shared the same colors as the key shards, and each one had a notch in the top.

"Hey!" Toad shouted, jumping onto the green column. "It looks like the key shards will fit in these little notches!"

"But what about the numbers on the plate?" Mario asked. "What could they mean?"

"They might be the order we have to put them in," the Princess said. "Since there's a number one above the energy symbol, we have to put the Energy Shard in the purple column first, and then the Air Shard in the turquoise column second, and so on and so on."

"That's probably it," Mario said. "Toad, you call out the colors in the order we're supposed to put them in, and the Princess and I will put the shards in the column."

"Okay, Mario," Toad said. "Purple, turquoise, blue, yellow, green, red!"

Mario and the Princess put the key shards into the columns as fast as they could. Once they were all inside, a large box rose out of the fire pit. The front of it had several bars in front, each with a strange keyhole, with colored gems at the top at bottom of it.

"What the heck is this?" Mario asked.

"I don't know," the Princess said. "But I'm not sure I want to know what's inside of it, either!"

" _Mmmph_!" a muffled voice shouted from inside the box, and something began knocking on it as well.

"Yikes!" Toad shouted. "Let's get outta here!"

"Wait a minute," Mario said. He walked over to the box, pressed his ear against the side of it, and listened.

" _Mmmph! Hmmmph!_ " the voice shouted.

"It's Luigi!" Mario shouted. "He must be inside this thing! There's only one way to be sure. Luigi and I have a special code we use to let each other know when it's one of us."

Mario cracked his knuckles, and knocked on the side of the box five times, and then waited. Almost immediately, two knocks followed from inside the box.

"That's it!" Mario shouted.

"That's it?" Toad asked. "That was shave and a haircut, two bits! _That's_ your special code?!"

"It isn't much, but you have to remember, we came up with it when we were bambinos," Mario said, shrugging. "Now all we have to do is figure out how to open this darn thing!"

"Mario, look!" the Princess shouted, picking up a strange purple, metal object. "This looks kind of like a key, and the round part has an energy elemental embossed on it!"

"Here's a blue one!" Toad shouted. "It's got a water elemental on it!"

"These must be the keys to this cage!" Mario shouted. "Come on, we've got to find the other four and get Luigi out of there fast, before Adara shows up!"

"Don't worry, Luigi!" the Princess shouted. "We'll get you out of there!"

Once the trio gathered all of the keys, they stuck them into the keyholes. They used the two gems that were on the keyholes as a guide, for which key fit. Mario took the key with the water elemental and stuck it into the keyhole with the two blue gems. Toad stuck the earth key into the keyhole with the yellow gems, and so on. Once they turned the keys, the bars were removed from the front of the box, and Mario was able to open the thick door of the cage. Luigi practically crawled out of the box, and gasped for air. He nearly fell flat on his face, but Mario and the Princess managed to catch him before could.

"Easy there, little brother," Mario said.

"Whew!" Luigi shouted. "Thanks, Mario! I thought I was gonna suffocate in there!"

"Are you all right, Luigi?" the Princess asked.

"Yeah," Luigi said. "I'm fine now. But we'd better get the shards and get outta here before Ms. Hot Stuff shows up!"

"Precisely what I was thinking, bro!" Mario said. "Let's make like an egg, and scramble, everybody!"

The foursome gathered the shards from the coulumns, and were about ready to leave, when a cackle was heard from out of nowhere. In a giant flash of flames, Adara appeared before them.

"What's the rush, my friends?" she asked. "After all, you only just got here. I was hoping you'd stay. Thank you for bringing me my key shards. Now that they're in my possession, they'll make me ruler of Elementia!"

"Not if we can help it!" Mario shouted. "I've still got Eli's pendant, and his magic wand!"

"Yes, I know," Adara said. "But before we do anything, I'd like to play a little game of Elemental Chess with you."

"Well . . . ." Mario said, hesitantly.

Adara didn't wait for Mario to finish his thought. She snapped her fingers, and our heroes disappeared. They reappeared again on a large chessboard. Across from them were eight of the biggest fire elementals they had ever seen. A huge shadow then loomed over the board. The group looked up, and found a giant sized Adara looking down at them, and laughing.

"Holy ravioli!" Luigi shouted. "She shrunk us to the size of chess pieces!"

"No problem," Mario said. "I can take care of them with . . . . hey! Eli's pendant is gone!"

"I know, my little pawns," Adara said, holding Eli's pendant in her hand, and dangling it above our heroes. "But I'm not leaving you completely powerless. I'll allow you to move freely about the board, even when it isn't your turn to make a move, but only to dodge any uncoming attacks. If you're fast enough."

Adara snapped her fingers again, and four pieces of the pendant came loose, each wedge on a chain. They flew towards our heroes, and draped themselves around their necks.

"I'm also giving all of you each an elemental power to play with," Adara said. "For my pretty princess, the power of air. For my little mushroom man, the power of water. For tall, green, and skinny, the power of nature. And for fatso, the power of earth, mainly because he has rocks in his head if he thinks he can defeat me!"

"Hey!" Mario shouted, offended. "I resemble that remark!"

"Of course," Adara said, checking her fingernails, "the little gemstones I gave you from my darling nephew's training pendant don't _nearly_ have the same amount of power as my level five fire elementals do. They don't even hold as much power as a level one elemental does. But, c'est la vie."

"La vie!" Toad shouted. "Ah heh heh heh. Eeehhhh."

"And don't even think about using dear Eli's magic wand to help you, either," Adara said, holding Eli's wand in her hand. "I'll be hanging onto it. Let the game begin!"

Mario and his friends just stood there for a moment, not sure what to do. They were broken out of their thoughts when one of the giant fire elementals blasted a flame at them.

"Duck!" Mario shouted, jumping out of the way.

"Yikes!" Luigi shouted.

"What can we do, Mario?" the Princess asked.

"Use the powers Adara gave us!" Mario shouted. "Just concentrate on your element, and fire! It's about all we can do!"

The Princess nodded. She closed her eyes, and held up her hand, concentrating as hard as she could on creating the biggest tidal wave imaginable. Unfortunately, the tiny piece of Eli's pendant she had was unable to create a wave big enough to destroy the fire elemental completely, and only took away about one eighth of it's power.

"Oh no!" she shouted.

The fire elemental laughed evilly, and shot a giant flame at the Princess. She screamed, and dodged it in the nick of time.

"Don't worry, Princess!" Toad shouted, moving to another square. "I'll blow these jokers away!"

Toad closed his eyes, concentrated on a hurricane, and held up his hand. A blast of wind came out, but, like the Princess, he only took away another eighth of the fire elemental's fire power. The fire elemental laughed again, and tried to hit Toad with his fire. He was able to move out of the way, but the elemental managed to give the mushroom a hot foot.

"YEEOOOOUCH!" Toad shouted. He grabbed his foot and began hopping up and down. "Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot!"

"This is useless, Mario!" Luigi shouted, using some vines to cover the elemental, which didn't work. "We'll never be able to take out all eight of these things!"

"You're right, Luigi," Mario shouted, dodging an oncoming flame. "Not with these skimpy little powers!"

"We could sure use some help about now!" Toad shouted.

"You asked for it, and you got it!" a familiar voice shouted from nearby.

A flash of purple lightning came down on the board. Mario and the others had to shield their eyes from it. Once it subsided, they found themselves surrounded by various of the other five elementals. They looked up toward where the voice had come from, and there were the Great Dragon, the Mistress of the Sky Castle, the Water Lord, the Lady of the Lake, and the forest baby. The forest baby had been sent by the Forest Master, as he couldn't uproot himself to join the group.

"Hey, what are you all doing here?" Mario asked.

"You helped us," the Mistress said, "so we came to help you."

"Remember what young Eli told you about Elemental Chess," the Lady of the Lake said. "Get together with two or more of the element Adara gave you to level up."

"Now get to it and show those fire elementals what you're made of!" the Water Lord shouted.

Mario, Luigi, the Princess and Toad gave each other a high five, and went to work. They couldn't level up right away, however. They could only do that when it was their turn to make a move. But at least they could work a little damage on the fire elementals, and having energy elementals on their side helped a great deal. They were soon able to reduce the fire elementals down to size. Mario shot a piece of rock at the very last fire elemental, destroying it completely. Once all of the fire elementals were defeated, Mario, Luigi, the Princess, and Toad were restored to their regular sizes. Adara was not happy about this outcome.

"No!" she shouted. "That wasn't supposed to happen! They were supposed to be fried! This isn't fair!"

"Look who's talking about being fair!" the Great Dragon shouted.

"Indeed," the Sky Castle Mistress said with a nod. Then she waved her hand, and blew Eli's wand from Adara's hand. She then threw it to Mario.

"Time to restore the Great Key," Mario shouted, grabbing the Fire Shard out of the column.

The forest baby, the Lady of the Lake, the Water Lord, the Sky Castle Mistress, and the Great Dragon took their respective key shards from the columns as well, and stood in a circle with Mario. Mario waved Eli's wand in the pattern he remembered when he restored the control panel at the Sky Castle. The key shards floated in a circle, and settled into a large, stone ring. Then the ring floated over to Mario.

"Wow," Mario said. "So this is the Great Key, huh?"

"Yes, that's the Great Key," Adara said, and she lunged at Mario. "And it's going to be mine!"

"Oh no you don't!" Mario shouted.

The plumber gripped the Great Key, and concentrating on all six elements as hard as he could. One at a time, the six shards began to glow. Once they were all glowing, a beam of light shot out from each of them, and surrounded Adara.

"No!" she yelled. "I was so close! This wasn't supposed to happen! I was supposed to win!"

"I've got news for you, Adara!" Mario shouted. "Evil never triumphs over good!"

Adara screamed as the beams from the Great Key hit her in the chest. Then there was a huge explosion. Once the light, smoke, and dust cleared, Adara was laying on the ground, slightly singed, but still alive. She groaned, and sat up, feeling a bit strange. She snapped her fingers, but nothing happened.

"My power . . . ." she said, snapping her fingers rapidly. "You . . . . you took away my fire power! How could you?!"

"That's easy," the Great Dragon said, as the Lady of the Lake and the Mistress took Adara by the arms. "You're evil!"

"Come along, everyone," the Water Lord said, as he waved his hand and opened the magic portal. "It's time we head back to the Magic Tower, and allow the great Eli Mentelle to decide the fate of the former Mistress of Fire. Mario, you and your friends may lead the way."

"Thanks, your lordship," Mario said, bowing to the Water Lord. "Come on, gang! Away we go!"


	11. The New Master of Fire

Once the entire group walked through the portal, they were met by Eli standing in front of the Magic Tower. Standing behind him were a man and woman, who looked a bit familiar to the Bros., Toad, and the Princess.

"You guys did it!" Eli shouted.

"How did you get out of the library, Eli?" Mario asked. "And who are these two?"

"These are my parents," Eli explained. "My mother, Ella . . . ."

"Ella Mentelle?" Toad asked, trying not to laugh.

"Yeah, I know," Eli said, and then he cleared his throat. "And this is my father, Eli Mentelle, Senior, the Master of the Elements, and keeper of the Great Key."

"Nice to meet you," Mario said, shaking Eli Sr.'s hand, and handing him the Great Key. "I think this belongs to you. But how did you turn back from being statues?"

"We're not quite sure," Eli Sr. said, taking the Great Key.

"I think I can answer that," the Great Dragon said. "Once you defeated Adara and took away her powers, every spell she cast that was active was broken."

"That's how I got out of the library," Eli said.

"Yes, darn it," Adara grumbled. "I was so close to winning. _So close_! Then you buttinskies had to meddle in!"

"We _had_ to," Toad said. "The elemental balance of Elementia was at stake! And that balance may have affected the Mushroom Kingdom!"

"And the rest of the world, as well," the Princess said. "But what's going to happen to Adara now?"

"I'm sure a few years in Elementia's jail will change my sister's attitude," Eli Sr. said.

"Even so," Adara said, "you've got another problem! Without me, the elements will become unbalanced! All six of the elements need to be represented by a master!"

"That _does_ present a problem," Ella said. "After all, Eli, your sister is the only fire master in Elementia."

"I think I may have a solution, Mr. Mentelle, sir," Mario said. "Why not let Eli be Master of Fire?"

" _Me_?!" Eli shouted. "The Master of Fire? I don't know about that."

"Why not?" Toad asked. "You know magic. You know all the spells."

"And you were the one who helped us defeat Adara," Luigi said.

"I didn't do much," Eli said, shrugging. "And I didn't really do anything to defeat my aunt. I was stuck in the library for quite a bit of time. It was Mario who defeated her."

"Yeah, I know that, paisano," Mario said. "But if you hadn't gotten us started, and if you hadn't used the shards in the Aura Scanner to find the other shards, and if you hadn't set the Lidar for us, and given me your magic wand and your training pendant, I never would have defeated Adara in the first place!"

"He's right, Eli," the Princess said. "We wouldn't have known what to do without your help."

"I still don't know," Eli said.

"Whattaya say, everybody?" Mario asked, turning to the other elemental masters. "You think Eli's got what it takes to be the Master of Fire?"

"Indeed we do," the Water Lord said.

"Oh yes," the Lady of the Lake said. "Definitely."

"Of course," the Mistress said.

"Works for me," the Great Dragon said. The forest baby jumped up and down, squeaking happily.

"You can't be much worse than your aunt, elemental dude!" Toad said. "After all, you're not evil, like she is!"

"You've been training for this," Ella said. "I think you're more than ready."

"Even though I didn't defeat Aunt Adara myself?" Eli asked.

"Keep in mind, Eli, if it hadn't been for you, we wouldn't have defeated her," Mario said.

Eli Sr. removed the Fire Shard from the Great Key, and held it out to his son. Eli looked at it, and then glanced at the others. They were all giving him encouraging gestures to take it. Finally, he reached out, and took the shard.

"I'll do it," he said.

Everyone began clapping and cheering. Eli Sr. took a magic wand out of his robe, and waved it, transporting everyone to the Temple of Flames. Then he took the Great Key, and stood in the center of Adara's fire pit. Eli Sr. took the other shards out of the Great Key, and handed them to the forest baby, the Lady of the Lake, the Water Lord, the Mistress, the Great Dragon, and Eli. The six of them gathered in a circle around the fire pit. Eli Sr. waved his wand, and the shards began to light up.

"Fellow elemental masters, and friends," he said. "Today, we induct a new master. Eli Mentelle, Junior, do you solemnly swear to keep the elemental balance, and use the power of fire for good?"

"I do," Eli said.

All six shards of the Great Key glowed, and flew into the air. They swirled around together for a moment, and flew over the heads of the elemental masters. The glow from the shards flew down from the crystals over the masters. Then the glows subsided, and the shards flew back into the Great Key.

"Eli Mentelle, Junior," Eli Sr. said, "you are now the Master of Fire."

Mario, Luigi, Toad, and the Princess applauded, and then Mario pulled a take-out food box out of his overalls.

"Now that you're the Master of Fire," he said, "how's about using some of that fire power to heat up this leftover ravioli?"

"That's my brother for you," Luigi said. "Whenever there's food involved, my brother is always in his element!"

The End


End file.
